Morning came quickly. Not that Danny had slept at all. They looked tired. Discussing a course of action for a leopard Cub. Amy certainly knew her stuff. It was her making the suggestions. Imaginative ideas. He decided to leave them alone. They were getting on so much better the last few weeks.

He saw Lexi walking slowly towards the boys hut. He went over to her. Reached her at the base of the boys hut.

"I'll go ID the body." he told her quietly.

"Dad." she answered.

"I'm her husband. If it is her it's my responsibility." sometime during the night he had resigned himself to the fact that he might have lost her. He hadn't made it definite yet but he had a feeling it was only a matter of time. She hadn't returned last night. Or telephoned. "I won't hang this on you Lex. I'll ID her." he told her softly.

"ID who?" Ryan asked approaching the hut.

"Ryan." Danny started.

"Is this about the phone call you got of the police Lex?"

"Yeah." she said slowly.

"Well is it Zoey? Have they found her?"

"It isn't Zoey. Can we talk later Ry?" Lexi asked.

"Is it mum? Has she collapsed at the hospital?"

"We'll talk later Ryan!" His dad said sternly.

I'll call Shauna! She'll find out and tell me! I'm not a baby! Just tell me is it mum? he fumed. Lexi couldn't help but notice the resemblance between her brother and their dad. He had the same stubborn face that her dad wore.

Danny nodded in resignation. "It's your mum son." he had to tell him. Shauna wouldn't tell him but with her being as upset as she would be he would know. He wasn't stupid.

"Is she really ill?" he asked calmly. His brown eyes were weary.

"Go inside the hut Ryan." Danny told him softly.

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Just do it!" Lexi pressed. "I'll leave you. go sort EJ."

He walked in quickly. Sat on his bed. "Tell me dad!" he said impatiently.

"Look Ryan. That phone call Lexi got last night…..Ryan." he exhaled. Frowned. "Your mother might be dead."

Ryan's eyes widened and he gasped. "What?" he whispered.

"What the hell?" an angry voice yelled.

Danny jumped.

Ryan dived off his bed.

A figure crawled from under the bed. "I don't know who you think you are Danny but lying to my son about me being dead is the lowest thing you have ever done!" Missy hissed.

"Miss?"

"Mum?"

"Yes son. Ignore your dad. I'm fine."

Ryan ran to her.

Danny stared at her. "How could you?"

"I knew it!" Danny murmured. "I knew I'd know!" Danny breathed in relief.

Missy ignored him. "Look son."

Ryan's eyes glistened and she rubbed his hair.

"Just fine. Fit as a fiddle." Smiled cockily at him. "Nothing keeps mum down. You should know that! Where do you think you get it from?"

"Why did you say that to me dad?" he asked.

"I'll have this sorted in a second." Danny assured. Rang Lexi.

"Can you please come down to the huts quickly Lexi."

5 minutes later Lexi turned up. Her eyes widened at Missy.

"Miss?" she gasped. Walked over and embraced her.

"He told you too?" Missy asked in disbelief. "What did you plan Daniel were you actually gonna bump me off when I came home?" she asked angrily.

"What you going on about Miss?" Lexi asked.

"Your dad told you I was dead too? I can't believe you'd stoop so low."

"Miss this is all my fault!" Lexi told her. "Dad told me you had gone on my mo-ped. Then the police called last night. Someone had a fatal crash. Head on collision."

"Your mo-ped got stolen while I stopped off in Jo'burg. I made my way back this morning by taxi. I didn't wanna come home last night in case I disturbed anyone."

"Why hide Miss?" Danny asked.

"I hid because I wanted to see my son without us arguing. He doesn't need to see that. I was just too tired to deal with you and it was a split second thing when I heard your voice." she said wearily. "I just didn't wanna see you or talk to you."

"Mum, dad?" Ryan asked.

"C'mon Ryan. I'll sort you and EJ some breakfast. Then you have school. I can'tt ell you how happy I am that your ok Miss. Dad tried to tell me you'd be fine but…."

"I'll come sort Ryan's breakfast." Missy offered.

"I think you and dad need to talk." Lexi suggested.

"I don't want to!" Missy said moodily.

Lexi shrugged. Ryan and Lexi walked off. Missy followed them. Walked down the stairs of the hut and headed towards the one she and Danny shared.

"Miss talk to me." he said following her.

"Go to hell!" she answered not even looking back at him.

"I lost you today Miss!"

This time she did turn. "No Danny you lost me yesterday! My emotional rollercoaster is too much for you remember?"

She carried on walking and jogged up the steps to their hut.

She grabbed her shampoo and soap. Reached for her towel. Jumped and grabbed it.

"I see your foot is fine." he murmured.

"Yeah. Thanks." she said dryly.

"So your leaving then Miss?" he asked.

"Yes!" she replied. Folded her towel and laid it across her arm.

"You taking Ryan?"

"I promised I'd never take him from you." she exhaled. "But I can't leave him either. You and I both know why!"

"Can't we just forget what we said?"

"No why should I and why should you?" she shook her head. Raised a hand and lowered it. "Look people always play emotional target practice with me. The stuff you say just gets worse and worse. And now your bringing Ryan into it. I'm very fragile when it comes to the kids Danny. I can't listen to you bringing the kids into arguments. We can't use them as weapons against each other. It just isn't fair on either of us."

"The last time this happened Ryan was 6 months old. We got through it then. We can do it again. Miss we love each other." he said softly. He walked over and put his arms around her. He felt her soften into him for a second then it was like she realised what she was doing and stopped.

"No. Go away Danny. I can't think when your like this!"

"Don't think then." he murmured.

"Just no!" she said. Shook her head. Rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Danny I didn't get much sleep last night so don't play with me like this."

"Neither did I." he admitted. "I spent most of the night trying to convince myself that you weren't dead."

She spent the night tossing in a hotel bed missing him, not that she was telling him that! She exhaled. "We can't promise that we won't do it again coz we always do. I'm sick of always saying the same stuff to you and hearing the same things in reply."

"If you don't love me anymore than we'll call it quits." he told her honestly.

"Fine I don't love you." she said too quickly. She didn't look at him when she said it either.

"Liar!"

She sat on the bed. Covered her face with her hands. "Why do you wanna be with me so badly Danny?"

"That's a stupid thing to ask. I love you." he said confused.

"Do you? Or are we just together out of habit? I know the signs it's what split me and Karl up."

"What we have is nothing compared to what you had with him so don't even go there Miss!" Danny fumed. Disliked being compared to other men she'd been with.

"Fine then. Just say we sort this out and we are blissfully happy…..and you find out there is other stuff I haven't told you!"

He froze. Then "I wouldn't care coz I have you."

"Now who's lying Danny?" she asked.

"Fine, I admit it would drive me crazy but only coz I know that you internalise bad stuff and I don't want you going through stuff like that by yourself. When you love someone you lean on them. All I know is that if you didn't wanna tell me I wouldn't push you again!" he said sincerely.

"You say that now!" she muttered cynically.

"So your willing to throw us away? What we have here. Our life? Do we mean nothing?"

She shook her head angrily. "Emotional blackmail now Danny? I am SO gone!" stood up.

He raised his hands in surrender.

"See Danny your still doing it! If things don't go the way you want you start. It's like it's automatic to you. O if I don't get my way I'll just be nasty, then if nasty doesn't work I'll turn on the emotional blackmail and she'll fold like she always does!" she said in mock mans voice.

"So what Miss? You don't want me to fight for you? To stop you?"

"What I want….no what I need is space! I have had so much stuff happen to me in the past month and would really appreciate you letting me sort it out in my head."

He thought for a second and knew she was right. Nodded slowly. Walked over to her. "You know where I am if you need me." before she could protest he pressed a quick kiss to her lips and walked away.

She closed her eyes and exhaled. That was exactly why she fell for him. He was like a bull dog when something got him. Tenacious as hell. She'd be so angry she'd wanna throttle him and then she'd say something and he's just get it say something sweet and sincere then back off.

A/N ok people i fully intended killin missy off. i really did i even had an alternate chapter wrote where lexi and the kids r leaving the hospital and lexi sees missy cumin in on the stretcher and sort of sheilds ryan but i could kill her in 'real life' and in my story that was just too hard so i wrote this. i am truly sorry about the rubbishness of all this i just can't seem to write too well atm. u probs knew this was comin anyway. i know cloloveswah guessed :)

anyway thanks 4 reading x