The sun was shining high in the sky and the air was sweet with the scent of the coming summer. Danny revelled in this, surrounded by the people he loved on the veranda. Rosie and Max sat to the right discussing the girls. They had decided to send Ally and Gloria to an out of school club until the new term started and they figured out where they were going to live, they couldn't enrol them in a school yet. Caroline and Dupe were arguing good naturedly about when he was taking her out again and on a scale of one to ten how much he was going to show her up, Nomsa chimed in every so often. Danny sat beside Alice on a sofa, this time his arm was around her naturally without using the yawn stretch although Alice had to admit she was fond of it now. They had decided to take a rare day off and share it together. Liv was en route home from the UK and would be arriving in no time. Charlie and Robbie were sat by the fence playing with a ball, Robbie had mastered the skill of rolling it to Charlie and found it to be hilarious, his high pitched giggles filled the air, especially when the ball rolled past Charlie and she lunged for it.

"Robbie's too good for me!" she sang missing it again.

Danny hugged Alice closer and smiled never having felt so relaxed before. This is what home was about, and family. Just sitting around doing absolutely nothing. He turned and starting murmuring in Alice's ear.

"Rosie has said she'll take Robbie and Charlie with her when they go out for tea so we can disappear somewhere for an hour or two."

He heard a loud snort and saw Rosie making a disgusted face. "Look at you two making eyes at each other." grinned at Charlie. "I pity you, see I don't have to live with it anymore."

"I'm just glad I'm not living with you and Max! Now that was sickly!"

Danny laughed and high fived Charlie.

Rosie blushed and Max grinned, took her hand for a second and squeezed it. Rosie looked at Max, saw him looking so happy and at home and her breath caught for a second.

"Now look who's making eyes." Danny told her lazily.

Rosie cleared her throat and said, "About Gloria…" to Max.

Max winked at Danny who nodded and silently said, 'Go for it!'

Danny returned to whispering to Alice. "I think we both have stuff to say and it'll be more fitting to say it in the place we first said it….if you know what I mean?"

"The copy?" she looked up at him.

He nodded slowly.

"When do we get away?" she was eager to say this and get back to their normal routine, like nothing out of the ordinary had happened and by saying it at the copy their new beginning would be solidified.

"In a little bit." kissed her lower lip gently. "Then its you, me and our copy."

They carried on whispering heads close, Rosie kept glancing at them smiling. She had never seen her dad act like this before, it was like he and Alice were new, almost like teenagers with their first love. A car pulled up.

"Someone better warn Liv, dad and Alice are….."

Rosie frowned when Liv didn't climb from the taxi….a man did….Michael. Danny and Alice looked up. Alice paled. Danny went from loved up to enraged in seconds. Alice glanced at him and saw his facing was twitching as he stared at Michael.

"Hello Alice." Michael winked at her. "Charlotte."

Charlotte glared at him and crossed her arms, she saw how Danny reacted to him and that made her hate him more. Michael ignored Charlotte's stance and looked at Danny, smirked at him cockily. It was then Danny knew that Micheal was aware that he'd been told about Alice's infidelity. Rage began to burn hotter.

"Have you missed me?" Michael asked Alice and Charlie.

"NO!" Charlie yelled.

"Who's he?" Rosie whispered to her dad.

"Oh sorry forgive my bad manners, let me introduce myself since Alice has decided to be quiet, I'm Michael Baxter."

Dupe's face darkened, he recognised the name. "I'm giving you ten seconds…" Dupe began.

"Charlottes dad." Michael carried on dismissing Dupe mid sentence.

"I'm her dad!" Danny fumed, realising he was on the verge of losing control and crossed his arms tightly.

"I find that hard considering I am her dad, aren't I Alice." again another cocky condescending smirk.

Alice covered her eyes with her hand feeling like her world was beginning to slowly disintegrate.

"Did you know he was coming?" Danny hissed at her.

Her head snapped up. "No, how could I?"

"Well how on earth did he just show up! You must have told him how to get it its not like its on a main road!"

"Danny I…."

"Don't deny it Alice, you have, coz if you hadn't he wouldn't be here!"

"I'm actually here to visit Charlie." Micheal nodded good naturedly. "Wondered if Alice was missing me too." wiggled his eyebrows leaving no uncertainty as to the meaning.

Danny heard that said in such a provocative way and ran down the stairs, the last of his control evaporating. Within seconds everyone seemed to be moving at once. Caroline picked up Robbie and grabbed Charlottes arm and dragged her inside the house. Max lunged for Danny trying to halt him from getting at Michael, he missed and ended up sprawled on the floor. Dupe walked inside the house with purpose, Rosie sat and watched it in shock and Alice's mouth hung open a loud ringing in her ears. She hadn't seen this side of Danny before hadn't even known it existed!

Danny meanwhile had reached his target and swung a tight fist. It connected with the side of Michaels jaw catching him off guard . He fell back against the veranda, Danny saw him about to slump to the floor, grabbed his collar, dragged him back up and hit him again - harder. Max saw what was happening and took Rosie inside, she was watching her dad with large frightened eyes. Alice came to life and ran towards Danny trying to pull him away before he did some serious damage. She grabbed his arm but he pushed her away forcefully.

"Get away from me!" he raged. "Tell them what you did Alice!" he raged. "Tell them how you cheated on me! YOU did this!" she flew sideways from his shove and skidded across the floor.

Charlie appeared at the door and moved towards him. "Don't do this Danny please! Just walk away!"

Danny was bending down to pick Michael up again, his focus on inflicting the most amount of pain possible. "DAD!" penetrated his haze.

"Charlie." Michael said groggily.

Danny's intensity returned at the reminder that Charlie wasn't his child.

"Not you!" Charlie snapped at Michael. "Dad." she repeated softer than before than put her hand on Danny's arm. "Please just come with me, his not worth this." she whispered. "Come with your daughter, you're my dad not him and my dad doesn't do stuff like this, he isn't capable of it!" she pleaded. He looked at her little face and she looked just like she did when he first met her. He took a step back Charlie smiled at him gratefully.

Michael was leaning back against the veranda, his eye was cut. Charlie took Danny's hand and held it tightly. "The surgery is calling c'mon the lion cub needs checked." then she glared at Michael. "You are nothing to me, NOTHING! I don't want to hear or see you again, my dad is right here you are no one!" with that she walked away from the veranda and house holding Danny's hand.

Alice sat watching as her daughter ad Danny left. Danny acted fine but she could tell by how stiff his back was that anger still flowed.

Seconds later Rosie was shrieking as she ran from the house. "DAD! You have to stop Dupe!"

Dupe walked out Max trying to stop him, he held a rifle.

Rosie ran to her dad. "Stop him dad! He has a gun, you need to stop him!"

"I don't care if Dupe shoots him Rosie, he deserves it!" and he turned his back.

This was going too far and no one could seem to stop the events from unravelling, and it was about to get worse!

"But Dad…."

Danny's head jerked back to look his Rosie. "Alice cheated on me with him Rosie so don't ask me to help him!" he hissed.

Charlie's eyes widened.

"Alice did what?" Rosie squeaked.

"Mum cheated?" Charlie whispered in disbelief.

Rosie's eyes narrowed, she spun and headed towards Alice. Max saw her and left Dupe to this time stop Rosie. She had reached Alice and was about to swing for her when Max rugby tackled her to the ground.

Danny started to walk towards the surgery again when a car pulled up and Liv climbed out in shorts, her hair clipped up. "Anybody missed me…" she surveyed the chaos around her, mouth open. Max was wrestling to keep an irate Rosie back. Pleading with her to calm down. Charlie was beside Rosie telling her what she planned on doing if she laid one finger on her mother. Nomsa stood at the door shielding the baby looking around worriedly. Caroline had her hands on Dupes shoulders keeping him back and an unknown man was bloody on the floor. Alice was sat on the floor her head in her hands, she saw she was slowly shaking it from side to side, almost like she couldn't believe this was happening. Rosie got free and dived on Alice, soon they were rolling on the floor. Charlie jumped on Rosie's back. Liv stomped over to Dupe, took the gun from him aimed it high and fired into the air.

Everyone froze. Rosie had a handful of Alice's collar fist raised, Charlie was pulling Rosie's hair, Caroline still had Dupe by the shoulders. Max walked over and picked Rosie up, moved her clear of Alice. Charlie stood glaring at her, almost standing guard.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Liv declared.

"Charlie go to the surgery to Danny." Alice murmured and urged her away.

She sent a death glare Rosie's way then began to walk towards the surgery.

Rosie took a step towards Alice and Charlie stopped and spun to watch. Rosie narrowed her eyes, voice cold. "You're not family, get out of here!" and Rosie then allowed Max to lead her away.

Caroline released Dupe. "Rosie…."

As soon as Dupe was free he ran to Liv, took the gun and trained it on Michael. His eyes determined.

"Tell me why I should let you leave without shooting you!" he hissed darkly.

Michael's eyes bugged.

"Who's he?" Liv asked.

Alice got up. "Liv go to Nomsa and take Robbie inside shut the door!" and Alice pushed her towards the house. Looked and saw Charlie watching. "CHARLIE SURGERY NOW!" she yelled.

Charlie turned and ran down to the surgery.

"Dupe calm down." she put her hand on his arm. "Put the gun down please."

"Alice you know you want me to shoot him!" he growled.

It was Alice, Caroline, Dupe, Michael alone here. The taxi man watched transfixed. Caroline was in pieces, pale and scared. That left Alice alone to fix this! "No Dupe I don't want you to shoot him, I want you to calm down and think about what your about to do!"

"I am thinking Alice, I'm thinking about you and Danny!" his face more focused now.

She put her face on his shoulder then looked at him. "I'm equally at fault here, if you shoot him then you may as well shoot me too, are you gonna do that Dupe? You gonna shoot me as well?"

"Alice…." he whispered.

She took a step back and looked at him. "Go on then." she told him. He scowled and she knew Michael was safe she headed towards the house. As she did she closed her eyes knowing what she had to do. The time had come to leave the only real home she could remember.

Dupe lowered his gun, Michael stood up wincing.

"I don't know what your game is but if I see you here again then I won't hesitate to shoot you. You heard Charlotte, she had her dad now the time has come to sign over your parental rights and crawl back into the woodwork and you better hope Danny and Alice can get past this, it was happening before you showed up! If they divorce and tear this family to pieces then I might find you and finish what Danny started!"

Michaels eyes widened and he ran to the taxi Liv had once occupied and dived in. Dupe lifted the cases from the back and it sped off.

Dupe exhaled. This family was mad but there was no way he was letting some little nobody do anything to break it! There were a million and one things to sort, not to mention talking to Trevanion and making sure Alice was ok, first thing though was Rosie, to do that to Alice was so out of character for her so something was obviously wrong. He walked down to the luxury lodge and saw her sat staring into the bush.

"Hey Rosie."

She didn't look at him, just concentrated on something only she could see in the distance.

He walked up the stairs. "You want to talk about what happened, how you reacted."

"No." she replied curtly.

Dupe sat down beside her and put his arm around her, she shrugged it off and turned away from him. "Rosie c'mon this is me you're talking to, you can tell me anything." he coaxed softly.

"Why'd she cheat Dupe?" her voice a hiss, fists clenched tightly.

"You don't know the whole story, maybe you should talk to her."

"Why? So she can give me whole load of bull shit excuses?" she stomped her foot heart pounding.

"No, but if you know the whole story you may not be as quick to judge."

"I know enough, I know that no matter what the circumstances dad wouldn't cheat on her! Would he?" she challenged.

"Maybe your dad would, or maybe not, you never know do you?"

"Under any circumstances….." Rosie began.

"Under normal circumstances Alice wouldn't cheat on your dad, but this isn't normal Rosie. They had major problems in London."

"What? So she went and made it worse by cheating? With him of ALL people, talking about rubbing my dads face in it!" she scowled. "Seriously Dupe if she was here right now…."

"You'd apologise!" he told her coldly. "You're supposed to be an adult now Rosie, a mother yourself. Your little sister saw you hitting her mother. Do you have any idea how much that must have scared her?"

"Scared her?" Rosie gasped. "She got stuck into me Dupe, if she pulled any harder I don't think I'd have any hair left!" she rubbed the crown of her head. "She wasn't scared, not at all!"

"She was scared you were gonna hurt her mum, she was protecting her. Tell me if situations were reversed you wouldn't have done the same!"

Rosie exhaled. "Ok yes I could have handled it better and I didn't want to scare Charlotte or to make her have to protect Alice but still Dupe, cheating!"

"No matter what I say or whatever Alice says you will always take Danny's side because he is your dad."

She stood up. "This isn't about taking sides ok!" her hands gesturing angrily. "This is about taking a stupid reckless chance with your marriage! Its about breaking trust! This is about right and wrong! Cheating destroys marriages!" her chest heaving.

He patted the seat gesturing her to sit down. "I'm not disputing that. But people can work past it if they love each other enough."

"Yeah well some people can't! Even if they do love each other more than anything else in the world!"

"And you know this from experience?" Dupe asked softly.

Rosie closed her eyes and her arms fell limply to her sides. When they opened and looked at him they were pain filled. Silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity. She put her head in her hands. "In the dying months….and I say dying as a literal term…..of my marriage Max and I accused each other of cheating repeatedly on a daily basis, if we even spoke it was only to accuse or berate the other. There was this one day, some daft little argument what I can't even remember really, I went too far. We did the cheating allegations then Max finally did what he'd been threatening to for weeks, he went to walk out and I said…." she exhaled and her voice cracked. "….I said he finally got what he wanted, that he'd been looking for a reason to leave for months so he could go and be with his new girlfriend….his pregnant girlfriend. I said he'd planned this for ages and he was happy that our baby wasn't here so he had no ties to me."

Dupe knew that pregnancy and babies were a soft spot for both of them, they had never really got over their loss, and saying that to Max was a low blow intended to wound him deeply and it would have. Of that Dupe had no doubt.

"Oh Rosie…" he whispered hugging her as she cried. She pulled back her eyes swimming with tears. "I don't even know why I said it, I certainly didn't mean it he was just hurting me so much by leaving and he didn't look bothered. I just needed to hit out and hurt him to see that I wasn't the only one dying inside. He walked out and that was it, we were over. The death of my marriage was due to cheating Dupe, maybe not literally but the allegations were enough. Thing is, stuff was hard but I know in my heart that he never cheated on me and I didn't cheat on him either."

Max stood there holding the girls hands. "Do you mean that?" he whispered face troubled.

Dupe stood up knowing this was a chat the two of them had to have alone. He kissed the top of Rosie's head then left.

They stared waiting for the other to make the first move. "We'll talk later Max, when the girls are in bed." she finally told him flatly.

He nodded, neither looked at each other but understood the importance of the coming conversation.

A/N Ohhhh and this chapter started off so well too….. then it all just fell apart everyone involved :/
Will danice survive? Will rax talk? Will Michael show his slimy face again? And will everyone make up, i.e. Rosie and Charlie…..or will something else happen that will blast this all into fragments? Stay tuned x