*****CHAPTER 14*****
The air breaks suddenly. Lightning streaks across the sky, the thunder gradually follows, and a torrential rain stirs the river and shakes the trees and splashes noisily down against the bridge.
"We oughta find some shelter." Kane looks doubtfully at the land, then at Dani. "You okay?"
She digs her nails into her palms, swallowing over and over. Kane is the last person she wants to confide in but there's no-one else. "I don't like thunder."
"The storm's a way away. Too long a gap between the thunder and lightning. Yabbie Creek, the Bay, we're prob'ly just the tail end."
But she's still shaking so he changes the subject, casting round for inspiration. He'd been ten years old when Auntie Rose told him the story and it stuck in his mind because it was the first time, apart from school, anyone ever told him a story, the first time anyone ever sat with him because he was sick. "My Auntie Rose told me the Aborigines have a dreamtime story for this place, how the moon came down to sleep on the river and the starlight was created..."
The thunder rolls again and Dani shudders in terror. He hesitates uncertainly, then walks slowly across the bridge to its centre. They stand facing each other alone for the first time since the day they both want to forget and remember constantly.
*****
Rhys didn't like the person he'd become. He hadn't been proud of himself for a long time now. He stared ahead at the road darkened by the heavy rain. He'd seen Kirsty's face when he'd said he'd kill Kane, even Shelley and Jade had seemed to back away. But he loved his family so much and would do anything for them, no matter what it took.
Shelley watched the windscreen wipers swaying back and forth. She spoke slowly, as if trying to convince herself. "If Kane's with her, I don't believe he'll hurt her. He did a terrible thing, he knows that, he'll never hurt anyone like that again."
"But it destroyed Dani." Rhys replied. "And she could have..." He didn't want to think about the consequences.
In the back of the car, Kirsty was sobbing. Jade, who was crying herself, squeezed her twin's arm. She couldn't pretend to understand Kirsty's love for Kane Phillips but, if only they all got through this okay, maybe she could try.
*****
Dani freezes. As she had done on the day that changed their lives.
"Okay, I'm here. Nothing happened. That's one fear you nailed." He's garbling. So much depends on this moment. "The thunder's gotta stop some time and it won't have hurt you. That's two. Your call."
Everything about him reminds her of the terror. The smell of his aftershave. The blueness of his eyes. Even the millisecond drawing of breath before he speaks. But on this bridge they've broken throught some invisible barrier, become almost equal in the despair. "Kane, did you...did you come down here to kill yourself?"
"Dunno really. No, not here. It was gonna be somewhere a long way away so Kirsty never had to go through all that stuff."
Dani digs her nails harder into her palms, drawing blood, trying to ignore the thunder crashing through her head. "I thought the Phillips were meant to be tough! And you're running away!"
He shrugs. "Haven't got much choice, Dani. What I did, Auntie Rose telling me I was born from rape...Kirsty deserves more than that." His face is wet from both the rain and his own tears. "I know no-one believes it, but what Kirsty and me have, it's real. We fell in love. Wasn't done to hurt you or get back at anyone, it just happened. Since I got back we wanted so much to be together and 'cos Kirsty loves you we were trying so hard not to be till you could be...well, we knew you couldn't ever exactly be cool with it, but...You can't give up on yourself, Dani, not when you got a family like that."
They can hear her family shouting to her through the storm now, growing closer. There is a lump in Dani's throat.
And a quiver in Kane's voice. "How'd you get to be so scared of thunder anyway?"
"When I was a kid, seeing a tree get struck by lightning, the thunder was so loud." Tears spill quietly down Dani's face. "I thought I grew out of it, but after the shipwreck..." She takes a deep breath. "Kane, the shipwreck, everything you did, you can't give up on yourself either."
*****
"I hate sitting here when I should be with Jade," Nick told Seb. "I wish they'd let us help look for Dani."
They were in the diner, watching the storm through the windows.
Seb sighed agreement and Jenny Gray, a girl from his grade who was sheltering from the storm with some friends, locked her fingers in his. "It'll be okay, Seb."
He nodded. Having Jenny by his side was the only thing keeping him sane. No-one actually said it out loud or even realised it but it wasn't just Dani everyone was worried about. Alf was out on the search, so was Alex, and Leah was at home with VJ, so Colleen was in charge and nobody ever remembered her being so nice before. Irene had come in earlier to give her a hand and she kept dabbing her eyes. It didn't exactly make anyone feel good, knowing Summer Bay was responsible for two deaths already and maybe two more.
****
"Hello, Rose." Clara sat down by the bed.
Rose Phillips smiled. The doctors told her she was lucky to be alive but she was still very weak and it was an effort to talk. "Thank you for the flowers. They're beautiful."
"I'll get a vase from the nurse," Clara said. She'd been asked if she would break the news about Scott, and she had something else to talk to Rose about. It was time Rose dealt with her rape and got the help she needed.
*****
"Dani, thank God!" Rhys hugs her, throwing his jacket round her shoulders, ruffling her hair like he used to when she was little. Then the anger resurfaces. "Did he touch you?"
"No." The answer is barely audible, Dani is crying so much.
Kane watches as the Sutherlands gather round Dani in a tight little unbreakable family knot.
"We need to get you to the car and warm and dry, sweetheart."
"Don't ever scare me like that again!"
The storm is fading as he begins to edge slowly away. Till footsteps echo behind him.
"Kane." Kirsty is by his side. Bewildered.
His voice is thick with tears. "Babe, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to put you through all this."
"Kane, don't leave me! Your Auntie Rose told me everything, it doesn't matter."
"Auntie Rose told you? When?"
"Today, at the hospital."
He reels in shock. "Scott told me she was dead."
The rain is shining on his face and he's shivering. So much hurt in her eyes and so much love. They reach to comfort each other.
"KIRSTY!" Rhys bellows in pure rage, making them all to stop dead. "Get away from him!"
"Dad, I..."
"You know what he is, you know what he's capable of, get away from him!"
She grabs Kane's hand, for the first time in her life afraid of her father as Rhys makes to move towards her.
"Dad, will you stop it? Will you please just stop it?"
Rhys stares at Dani in confusion. "You're saying you're okay with this?" he asks in astonishment.
"No." Dani gulps back a sob. "Kane and me, we had our own mediation out here. And I think...I think if we all talked instead of hating it might be okay one day."
They're only words. Raindrops on a river. Rhys, hurting from the guilt of not being there when Dani needed him most, struggles to understand. Shelley touches a time before rape when she could think clearly - murder, suicide...where did hatred stop? Jade, just wanting everything to be normal. Dani, wondering over and over if she can do this, when the emotions are still so raw. And then Kirsty. Weeping softly when she hugs her tight. And yet they're only words. That can build bridges.
Kirsty turns again to Kane and for a moment his eyes meet Dani's.
"Thanks," he says uncertainly.
She bites her lip and nods and hopes she's strong enough to face tomorrow. Where words could cross the hatred and the healing could begin.
***EPILOGUE***
Rose Phillips gazed out of the window of the nursing home. She was content, the home was near enough for Kane to visit and she spent every other weekend staying with him. Regular counselling was helping her come to terms with the rape and she was finally finding a happiness that had eluded her since Richie. But she dreaded this meeting with Dani Sutherland. Despite what Clara said, the girl must hate her.
Dani's hand shook as she pushed open the door of the dayroom and the sunlight flooded through the windows. She was making progress at the mediation sessions and had even met a new guy, Scott Hunter, who, unlike her ex, gave her the support she needed. But Clara's suggestion that talking with Rose could help them both seemed misguided. The woman would surely blame her for everything that happened.
"Mrs Phillips?"
The stroke had left Kane's mother partially deaf and Dani had to touch her shoulder when she didn't hear. Rose turned. And, sharing the pain of rape, they hugged instinctively.
*****
Kane was back at TAFE completing his course. Clara had helped Rose successfully claim compensation for the road accident that had crippled her and Rose had set up a fund to help him through college. In Summer Bay there was a gradual, uneasy acceptance of Kane and Kirsty together. So today, down at the wharf, waiting for the girl he loves, everything should be perfect. But it isn't.
Kirsty is late. She's been late a couple of times before and evasive about her reasons, though she's been huddled in secret conversation with Seb a lot lately. Is this then how their beautiful love is destined to end, on this perfect day with the sun sparkling on the blue water?
"Mate, we can't wait any longer!" Alf shouts.
Reluctantly Kane stirs himself. To supplement his income, he's been working on the boat trips round the Bay, helped - or hindered, as Alf puts it - by Kirsty. The boat has already pushed away from the land when she finally comes running down the wharf.
"Sorry!" she cries breathlessly. "I had to see Seb. Kane, I have to tell you something."
This is it. The day she breaks his heart. To Alf's consternation, Kirsty suddenly takes a gigantic leap into the boat, landing in Kane's arms, laughing at the whistles and clapping and cheering from the passengers.
"Seb wanted my advice on the ring he's buying Jenny for a surprise for her birthday. And, Kane, I have something for you too. To tell you I love you." She places the signet ring, with its two Ks intertwined, on his finger. "I had it specially made. D'you like it?"
"I love it. I love you too."
"I love you more."
"Stone the flamin' crows, we've a boat here!" Alf sighs impatiently, but nobody, not the passengers nor the people on the wharf and especially not Kane or Kirsty takes any notice on this perfect day to be in love.
***************
And Finally...
Wheeewww, that is the longest story I've ever written!!! Hope it was okay and the flashbacks didn't make it all too confusing. I know it was a bit out of date keeping Shelley as a character but as I'm in the UK I haven't seen Beth yet - pity, she sounds cool. Anyway, if anyone liked this story I might do another some time but, trust me, if I do it'll be much shorter!!! In the meantime, I get to sit back and read everyone else's fanfics... :o)))))
*****************************************************************************
The air breaks suddenly. Lightning streaks across the sky, the thunder gradually follows, and a torrential rain stirs the river and shakes the trees and splashes noisily down against the bridge.
"We oughta find some shelter." Kane looks doubtfully at the land, then at Dani. "You okay?"
She digs her nails into her palms, swallowing over and over. Kane is the last person she wants to confide in but there's no-one else. "I don't like thunder."
"The storm's a way away. Too long a gap between the thunder and lightning. Yabbie Creek, the Bay, we're prob'ly just the tail end."
But she's still shaking so he changes the subject, casting round for inspiration. He'd been ten years old when Auntie Rose told him the story and it stuck in his mind because it was the first time, apart from school, anyone ever told him a story, the first time anyone ever sat with him because he was sick. "My Auntie Rose told me the Aborigines have a dreamtime story for this place, how the moon came down to sleep on the river and the starlight was created..."
The thunder rolls again and Dani shudders in terror. He hesitates uncertainly, then walks slowly across the bridge to its centre. They stand facing each other alone for the first time since the day they both want to forget and remember constantly.
*****
Rhys didn't like the person he'd become. He hadn't been proud of himself for a long time now. He stared ahead at the road darkened by the heavy rain. He'd seen Kirsty's face when he'd said he'd kill Kane, even Shelley and Jade had seemed to back away. But he loved his family so much and would do anything for them, no matter what it took.
Shelley watched the windscreen wipers swaying back and forth. She spoke slowly, as if trying to convince herself. "If Kane's with her, I don't believe he'll hurt her. He did a terrible thing, he knows that, he'll never hurt anyone like that again."
"But it destroyed Dani." Rhys replied. "And she could have..." He didn't want to think about the consequences.
In the back of the car, Kirsty was sobbing. Jade, who was crying herself, squeezed her twin's arm. She couldn't pretend to understand Kirsty's love for Kane Phillips but, if only they all got through this okay, maybe she could try.
*****
Dani freezes. As she had done on the day that changed their lives.
"Okay, I'm here. Nothing happened. That's one fear you nailed." He's garbling. So much depends on this moment. "The thunder's gotta stop some time and it won't have hurt you. That's two. Your call."
Everything about him reminds her of the terror. The smell of his aftershave. The blueness of his eyes. Even the millisecond drawing of breath before he speaks. But on this bridge they've broken throught some invisible barrier, become almost equal in the despair. "Kane, did you...did you come down here to kill yourself?"
"Dunno really. No, not here. It was gonna be somewhere a long way away so Kirsty never had to go through all that stuff."
Dani digs her nails harder into her palms, drawing blood, trying to ignore the thunder crashing through her head. "I thought the Phillips were meant to be tough! And you're running away!"
He shrugs. "Haven't got much choice, Dani. What I did, Auntie Rose telling me I was born from rape...Kirsty deserves more than that." His face is wet from both the rain and his own tears. "I know no-one believes it, but what Kirsty and me have, it's real. We fell in love. Wasn't done to hurt you or get back at anyone, it just happened. Since I got back we wanted so much to be together and 'cos Kirsty loves you we were trying so hard not to be till you could be...well, we knew you couldn't ever exactly be cool with it, but...You can't give up on yourself, Dani, not when you got a family like that."
They can hear her family shouting to her through the storm now, growing closer. There is a lump in Dani's throat.
And a quiver in Kane's voice. "How'd you get to be so scared of thunder anyway?"
"When I was a kid, seeing a tree get struck by lightning, the thunder was so loud." Tears spill quietly down Dani's face. "I thought I grew out of it, but after the shipwreck..." She takes a deep breath. "Kane, the shipwreck, everything you did, you can't give up on yourself either."
*****
"I hate sitting here when I should be with Jade," Nick told Seb. "I wish they'd let us help look for Dani."
They were in the diner, watching the storm through the windows.
Seb sighed agreement and Jenny Gray, a girl from his grade who was sheltering from the storm with some friends, locked her fingers in his. "It'll be okay, Seb."
He nodded. Having Jenny by his side was the only thing keeping him sane. No-one actually said it out loud or even realised it but it wasn't just Dani everyone was worried about. Alf was out on the search, so was Alex, and Leah was at home with VJ, so Colleen was in charge and nobody ever remembered her being so nice before. Irene had come in earlier to give her a hand and she kept dabbing her eyes. It didn't exactly make anyone feel good, knowing Summer Bay was responsible for two deaths already and maybe two more.
****
"Hello, Rose." Clara sat down by the bed.
Rose Phillips smiled. The doctors told her she was lucky to be alive but she was still very weak and it was an effort to talk. "Thank you for the flowers. They're beautiful."
"I'll get a vase from the nurse," Clara said. She'd been asked if she would break the news about Scott, and she had something else to talk to Rose about. It was time Rose dealt with her rape and got the help she needed.
*****
"Dani, thank God!" Rhys hugs her, throwing his jacket round her shoulders, ruffling her hair like he used to when she was little. Then the anger resurfaces. "Did he touch you?"
"No." The answer is barely audible, Dani is crying so much.
Kane watches as the Sutherlands gather round Dani in a tight little unbreakable family knot.
"We need to get you to the car and warm and dry, sweetheart."
"Don't ever scare me like that again!"
The storm is fading as he begins to edge slowly away. Till footsteps echo behind him.
"Kane." Kirsty is by his side. Bewildered.
His voice is thick with tears. "Babe, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to put you through all this."
"Kane, don't leave me! Your Auntie Rose told me everything, it doesn't matter."
"Auntie Rose told you? When?"
"Today, at the hospital."
He reels in shock. "Scott told me she was dead."
The rain is shining on his face and he's shivering. So much hurt in her eyes and so much love. They reach to comfort each other.
"KIRSTY!" Rhys bellows in pure rage, making them all to stop dead. "Get away from him!"
"Dad, I..."
"You know what he is, you know what he's capable of, get away from him!"
She grabs Kane's hand, for the first time in her life afraid of her father as Rhys makes to move towards her.
"Dad, will you stop it? Will you please just stop it?"
Rhys stares at Dani in confusion. "You're saying you're okay with this?" he asks in astonishment.
"No." Dani gulps back a sob. "Kane and me, we had our own mediation out here. And I think...I think if we all talked instead of hating it might be okay one day."
They're only words. Raindrops on a river. Rhys, hurting from the guilt of not being there when Dani needed him most, struggles to understand. Shelley touches a time before rape when she could think clearly - murder, suicide...where did hatred stop? Jade, just wanting everything to be normal. Dani, wondering over and over if she can do this, when the emotions are still so raw. And then Kirsty. Weeping softly when she hugs her tight. And yet they're only words. That can build bridges.
Kirsty turns again to Kane and for a moment his eyes meet Dani's.
"Thanks," he says uncertainly.
She bites her lip and nods and hopes she's strong enough to face tomorrow. Where words could cross the hatred and the healing could begin.
***EPILOGUE***
Rose Phillips gazed out of the window of the nursing home. She was content, the home was near enough for Kane to visit and she spent every other weekend staying with him. Regular counselling was helping her come to terms with the rape and she was finally finding a happiness that had eluded her since Richie. But she dreaded this meeting with Dani Sutherland. Despite what Clara said, the girl must hate her.
Dani's hand shook as she pushed open the door of the dayroom and the sunlight flooded through the windows. She was making progress at the mediation sessions and had even met a new guy, Scott Hunter, who, unlike her ex, gave her the support she needed. But Clara's suggestion that talking with Rose could help them both seemed misguided. The woman would surely blame her for everything that happened.
"Mrs Phillips?"
The stroke had left Kane's mother partially deaf and Dani had to touch her shoulder when she didn't hear. Rose turned. And, sharing the pain of rape, they hugged instinctively.
*****
Kane was back at TAFE completing his course. Clara had helped Rose successfully claim compensation for the road accident that had crippled her and Rose had set up a fund to help him through college. In Summer Bay there was a gradual, uneasy acceptance of Kane and Kirsty together. So today, down at the wharf, waiting for the girl he loves, everything should be perfect. But it isn't.
Kirsty is late. She's been late a couple of times before and evasive about her reasons, though she's been huddled in secret conversation with Seb a lot lately. Is this then how their beautiful love is destined to end, on this perfect day with the sun sparkling on the blue water?
"Mate, we can't wait any longer!" Alf shouts.
Reluctantly Kane stirs himself. To supplement his income, he's been working on the boat trips round the Bay, helped - or hindered, as Alf puts it - by Kirsty. The boat has already pushed away from the land when she finally comes running down the wharf.
"Sorry!" she cries breathlessly. "I had to see Seb. Kane, I have to tell you something."
This is it. The day she breaks his heart. To Alf's consternation, Kirsty suddenly takes a gigantic leap into the boat, landing in Kane's arms, laughing at the whistles and clapping and cheering from the passengers.
"Seb wanted my advice on the ring he's buying Jenny for a surprise for her birthday. And, Kane, I have something for you too. To tell you I love you." She places the signet ring, with its two Ks intertwined, on his finger. "I had it specially made. D'you like it?"
"I love it. I love you too."
"I love you more."
"Stone the flamin' crows, we've a boat here!" Alf sighs impatiently, but nobody, not the passengers nor the people on the wharf and especially not Kane or Kirsty takes any notice on this perfect day to be in love.
***************
And Finally...
Wheeewww, that is the longest story I've ever written!!! Hope it was okay and the flashbacks didn't make it all too confusing. I know it was a bit out of date keeping Shelley as a character but as I'm in the UK I haven't seen Beth yet - pity, she sounds cool. Anyway, if anyone liked this story I might do another some time but, trust me, if I do it'll be much shorter!!! In the meantime, I get to sit back and read everyone else's fanfics... :o)))))
*****************************************************************************