Weeks passed without incident, Danny and Alice were intent on sticking upon their agreement, they soon settled into an uneasy working relationship. The things they were declared refused to go away though. Alice was sat in the office, she had an assignment due in April and was trying to sort some notes into some sort of semblance of order, it wasn't happening. She finally had 5 minutes, everything was so up in the air and Alice's head was all over….Rosie ran in the office.

"Alice I need your help."

"Rosie your not supposed to come in here." Alice told her.

"But Alice….

Rosie I'm busy, can it wait?"

"Please Alice!"

"Rosie!" Alice snapped. Exhaled and put her pen down. "What is it?" she asked softly.

Rosie glared at her. "It don't matter!" her eyes glistened and she ran out.

Alice exhaled. It wasn't Rosie's fault that Alice's life was so hard at the minute…..it was her fathers fault! He made her fall for him! She stood up and walked after her. Saw her trip as she ran on the veranda. Alice jogged up.

"You ok sweetheart?" she asked softly.

"Go away, your busy!" she sniffed.

"I'm sorry Rosie. I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm a stupid adult sometimes."

Rosie exhaled and moved her hands. She had a nasty scrape across her knee.

"C'mon we'll clean that up." Alicee lifted her gently.

"Can you help teddy too?" Rosie asked. Rosie hopped into the house into her room.

Alice saw her teddy on the bed. The leg had fell off and the stuffing had fell out. Alice smiled widely. "Grab teddy!"

Rosie picked it up.

Alice picked her up. "This is a medical emergency!" Alice said seriously. "I'm gonna need your help to save this teddy! Do you feel up to it?"

"My leg hurts!" Rosie admitted.

"We'll get teddy on some oxygen then I'll sort your leg ok!"

Rosie nodded.

Alice flew them down to the surgery.

A Short While Later.

Alice had bandaged Rosie's leg and she was stood on a stool. They were side by side in front of the teddy.

"Is he asleep yet?" Alice asked.

Rosie shook him and nodded.

"How does he look?" Alice was smiling though Rosie couldn't see it. They were in full get up, scrubs, face masks gloves. Alice had to improvise for Rosie coz everything was too big.

"Not so good!" Rosie said gravely holding his paw.

"Never lost a patient yet!" Alice told her. "Ok nurse, forceps."

Rosie frowned and Alice pointed them out.

Rosie handed them to her. Alice used them to put the stuffing back inside the bear.

"Needle and thread." Rosie handed it to her and Alice stitched up.

"You monitoring him Rosie?" Alice asked as she stitched.

"Yep, he's good."

"Scissors."

Rosie handed her the scissors and Alice cut the thread.

"There." Alice whispered tying the knot on the thread. Handed Rosie the stethoscope. "How does he sound?"

Rosie checked, her face completely serious.

"Strong." Rosie whooped.

"We did it!" Alice exclaimed and high fived her. "You wanna carry him to the cages till he wakes up?"

Rosie nodded and picked him up gently. "You'll be ok, we took care of you. Told you she was good!" she whispered and kissed his head.

Alice brought Rosie to the end cage, no animals were anywhere near it. Couldn't be too careful! "Now Rosie I need you to check on him every few hours."

"Hey Rosie what…" Danny saw his daughter with her hands in a cage. Alice obscured the view. "Rosie your not allowed to put your hands in there!" he walked across. "Alice how…." he removed Rosie's hands and saw her stuffed bear. "What?"

"Alice saved…."

Alice shook her head and pointed to her.

"Me and Alice saved him! Alice gave me the job of checking on him."

"Got her in training as a vet. She'll be one yet!" Alice whispered joking.

"You did a great job with claws remember?" Danny smiled.

Rosie nodded and hugged Alice. "You're the bestest!"

Alice hugged her back. "Your better." she whispered. She pulled her gloves off and tweaked Rosie's nose.

Rosie wiggled it and Alice smiled.

"I'd better be cleaning up in here." Alice said.

"Tea is in the house."

"I'll be straight up, got to sterilise some materials. Do you know where the normal thermometer is?" she asked.

"Should be in the cupboard."

"Well its not, I had to use the rectal one for the bears mouth."

Danny twisted his face.

"Well I couldn't use it the traditional way and Rosie insisted on taking his temp so… I'll never see that bear the same way again!"

He laughed.

Alice watched as Rosie left. He loved that she was so willing to spend time with her. He knew she had Uni work to catch up on and yet she pushed it aside. Why couldn't they be together? "I'll save you some tea." he promised.

"You'd better or I might take a bite out of you…." then she blushed.

"I know what you meant." he assured.

"I know but still….." she murmured.

He nodded and followed Rosie. She was dawdling obviously wanting to tell him something.

"Dad." Rosie asked.

"Yeah." he knew it, he could read her like a book.

"I want Alice to be my mum."

Danny knew this was coming too. Rosie had bonded so much with Alice, especially since Miranda had died, he sat her down on the veranda.

"Do you think if I asked her she would be?"

"It's not easy sweetie."

Rosie frowned.

"Alice is really young. She's only 22."

"You had me when you were younger than that!"

"I was married."

"Then marry Alice! Then she can be my mum and you can have another baby and we'll be a family forever."

Danny almost choked on his tongue, Rosie had obviously thought this through and since when did she want a sibling? "Rosie when you marry someone you need to love them." which he and Alice did, there were other things in the way.

"Well just say you love her!"

"What brought this on?" he asked.

"She's gonna leave and I don't want her to I want her to be my mum. I want her to love me like a mum loves her little girl. My friend said if you have a baby together then you get married, or her big sister did. Tell Alice I want a sister but I don't mind if you want a boy coz you have me."

Danny coughed shocked at her logic.

"Look Rosie I know you want a mum but Alice is still so young. She has a life of her own to live, then she can have a family. We can't ask her to change her life, to not live her life for us. Do you know what I mean?"

Rosie nodded sadly.

"And she does love you, I know she does. "

Rosie exhaled. "Ok daddy."

Rosie looked at Alice as she approached. Alice gave her a thumbs up. "He's doing great!"

Rosie nodded slightly, completely dejected then walked inside.

Alice frowned. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Danny told her and walked inside.

That Night

Alice was dreaming of danny. She was in his arms and they were on the bed. He was kissing her so deeply, her heart was pounding.

"I love you Alice." he whispered against his lips.

She could do no more than murmur in reply, his lips were firm against hers. The kisses were growing in heat and intensity, she felt feverish.

"I need you Alice. Now." he told her frantically.

She groaned his name.

"Alice!" she felt herself being tugged from her dream by someone insistently calling her name and pulling her hand, she really didn't want to leave this dream! Kept her eyes closed tight.

"Alice!" she was jerked to full wakefulness. She lifted her head.

"Rosie?" she asked sleepily. "Time is it?" looked at her phone and saw it was one. She sat up alert immediately. "Are you ill?"

She shook her head.

"You ok?"

She shook her head. "I had a bad dream."

Alice pulled back the covers, Rosie hopped in. Alice put her arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. "Wanna tell me about it? My mum used to tell me that a problem shared is a problem halved." she whispered restraining a yawn. Rosie snuggled closer.

"My mum was ill you know." she whispered hiding her face in Alice's arm.

Her mum was batty, off her freaking nut. Insane - but she kept that to herself. "Hey don't hide from me, I know she was and it doesn't bother me."

"Was your mum nice?" Rosie asked.

Alice nodded and smiled. "She was brilliant. She always knew how to make me feel better, I miss her a lot."

"Is she dead too?"

Alice nodded. "I was only a little bit older than you when she died. I was 10." and it still felt like yesterday sometimes.

"My mum made me frightened sometimes. But you don't, your like your mum with me. You make me feel better."

Alice rubbed her shoulder affectionately.

"When she had me in that bathroom she said she was taking me away from my dad. Was gonna take me away from him forever. I knew she was gonna hurt me so I was dead."

Alice pulled her closer and stroked her hair. "It's ok. I was there. I would never have let that happen! She would never have hurt you while I was there!"

Rosie nodded. "You were there and helped me and now I'm losing you!"

"Your not gonna lose me." Alice promised.

Rosie inhaled deeply. "Alice will you stay forever. Please. Will you fall in love with my dad and be my mum!"

Alice had a feeling this was coming and didn't want to hurt her. She pressed a kiss to her head. "If I could I would but I can't."

Rosie exhaled. "Daddy said you were too young. That it wasn't fair to ask you to give up your life."

"It's not that. I'd give up anything for you. Even my life!" Alice meant it in the other way Rosie hadn't mentioned.

"Really?"

Alice nodded. "And I am old enough to be a mum if I wanted. But see I'm at school and you know how at school you get wrong if you have boyfriends?"

Rosie nodded.

"Well me and your dad would get in heaps of trouble. Your dad would even lose his job!"

Rosie shook her head. "I don't want that."

"Plus I thought we weren't having boyfriends till we're 21."

Rosie looked at her like she was stupid. "Your 22."

Alice grinned. "Busted."

Rosie was silent, Alice had to do something for her.

"I can do one thing though!"

"What?"

"Well you could make me your big sister!"

"Really?" Rosie whispered eyes wide. "Like adopting you?"

Alice nodded smiling. As long as Roise was adopting her and it had nothing to do with Danny, that would be weird! "A big sister is WAY better than a mum. See a mum has to take your dad's side but a big sister always sides with her sister and I can help you play jokes on him. See if I married your dad I'd have to help him."

Rosie wrinkled her nose. "How do I adopt you?"

Alice got up and got a piece of paper. Drew a hand with a claw print on it. Drew a circle around it.

"That is the official Leopards Den Adoption Logo." she said poshly. Then wrote below.

'I Rosie Trevanion hereby adopt Alice Collins as my big sister forever and ever. We promise to always be friends, always look out for each other and to play jokes on her dad. Signed.'

Alice signed her name, Rosie added hers beside it.

"I need you to decorate this is bright as you can. As soon as you do it's official."

"Can I tell dad?"

"When he wakes up yeah." Alice chuckled.

"I'll go back to bed." Rose told her yawning.

"How about a sleepover little sister?" Alice asked.

"Really?"

Rosie shuffled down. Alice hugged her close.

"I really love you Alice." Rosie whispered held her hand tightly. "I've never had a mum or a big sister before. I think your both."

"I love you as well." Alice promised. Rosie's breathing was slow and deep. "I'll be your mum one day!" she vowed.

(X)

Danny's alarm rang the next morning. He turned it off surprised that Rosie hadn't woke him before now. She'd been upset and quiet last night about Alice not being her mum. God poor Rosie. He should have done better for her. She had such a poor mother she latched on to the first woman who was kind to her. He climbed from his bed went to see if she was ok and found her bed empty. His heart plummeted had she ran away? He ran to the living room, kitchen, bathroom they were all empty. His heart was pounding now, his fear palatable. He went to Alice's room.

"Alice, Rosie has….." he walked in and saw Rosie asleep beside Alice. Usually if she had a bad dream she went to him, but she went to Alice. Rosie sighed in her sleep. Alice's hand tensed as it rested on Rosie's stomach. As Rosie settled so did Alice.

He watched them, was there any way Alice wasn't perfect? He saw a sheet of paper. Saw Rosie signature beside Alice's. They were promising to always be there, Alice promising to always be her big sister. Nope there wasn't, Alice was perfect and he loved her. There was no turning back now. Somehow they would stick it out until she was qualified. Actually no - he'd resign, sod the job. He loved her, she meant more to him that the job. He'd hand her assignment over to someone else so there was no favouritism. As soon as his resignation was through - May. He propose, they'd have a long engagement. He didn't want to wait but he would. It felt good knowing that in a few months she would be his, that soon nothing would be standing between them. She was worth waiting for. He went to his computer to write his resignation letter.

A/N nothing cud possibly go wrong between now and then can it? Keep readin nearly at the end x next upload opposites attract, possibly 2nite x (not typed yet)