Hey everyone, thank you for yet more great reviews. Just so you know this one will start on Day 2 but it's set later in the day.
Day 2 – Chopper missing – (4:16pm) 20 hours and 5 minutes later…
Summer Bay – Surf Club – Main Area
In the end, Alf had stayed at the Surf Club all night which meant his sister Morag also didn't go home when everyone else had left the previous night. This meant neither of them had seen an actual bed in nearly 48 hours.
Alf was sorting through some maps when Marilyn came in with some coffee for him: "It's time you took a break Mr Stewart, you haven't stopped."
"I'm fine." Alf says putting the maps down as Morag just stands and rolls her eyes at his comment.
"Well five minutes isn't going to hurt you. Come on it will do you the world of good." Marilyn tells her friend as she places the coffee on the table where he had been sat.
"Oh, put a sock in Marilyn." Alf snaps at her.
Marilyn throughs her hands up then walks away not wanting to get shouted at next.
"Where's that flamin' map?" Alf says looking around for it.
Watching her brother running around like a headless chicken, Morag says: "You know, Marilyn's right. You need to rest."
"I'll tell you what I need." Alf points his finger at her "Which is a bit of organisation and what I don't need is every woman that's in this flamin' town, telling me what to do!"
It's that that he finds the map he was looking for and pulls it not noticing the takeaway coffee cup sat on top of it. As he pulls the map, the coffee goes everywhere.
"Oh, thanks a lot Marilyn!" Alf said as he shakes the map to try and dry it.
"Would you just calm down?" Morag asks him calmly.
"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN MORAG!" yells Alf "I'VE HAD A GUT FULL OF IT. NOW, IF ALL YOU CAN DO IS JUST STAND AROUND HERE AND TAKE PUNCH SHOTS AT ME, THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET OUT…"
Alf doesn't get a chance to finish what he was saying as he throws his hand to his chest in pain.
"Alfred?" Morag says rushing over to her brother "Alfred? Call an ambulance someone!"
Marilyn quickly runs off to the office to call an ambulance.
(4:57pm) 41 minutes later…
Summer Bay – Yabbie Creek – Northern Districts Hospital – Trauma Bay 1
Sid Walker had just finished looking over Alf's results as he was buttoning up his shirt.
"It was a heart attack wasn't it?" Morag asks "I told him to slow down, take a break but he was pushing himself to hard."
"This isn't helping." Alf tells her.
Looking over the results then at his patient, Sid says: "Well your probably right it isn't but just for the record it wasn't a heart attack. It was a flutter, but you should see this as a wakeup call. If you don't start taking it easy Alf, you might not be so lucky next time."
"See." Morag says over her brother's shoulder which just gets a look.
Sid then continues: "You need to eat better and sleep better Alf. Also make sure you avoid stress as much as possible."
"Yeah, well it's easier said than done in this environment." Alf informs his friend.
"Well, how about we make it easier for you, we're gonna keep you overnight for observation."
"No, I can't stay here. I've got to get back to the Surf Club."
Not liking what her brother was saying, Morag said to Sid: "He's staying. And from now on he's going to be a model patient because if he isn't, he'll have me to answer to."
"How the hell am I going to avoid stress, if I've got you on my back?"
Morag just smiles and looks at Sid again: "Thank you doctor."
"I'll be back in a minute; I'm just going to get some medication." Sid laughs as he walks out the room.
Once he had left, Morag walks to the other side of the room so Alf can see her face when she speaks.
"Well you heard him." Alf says first "I'm not going to cark it, so there's no reason for you to stick around."
"You are putting the search before your health." Morag points out to him "And as cranky as I am with you, the fact remains that at times like this no one expects anything less of Alfred Stewart. I know I certainly don't."
"Yeah, that could be the biggest joke of all. Here I am, busting a gut for what?" Alf asks her "As far as we know, they could all be dead."
"Oh, Alfred don't." Morag said not wanting to think of them being dead "Now you know that's not true."
"Do I? That's why I didn't want to stop Morag, I just wanted to keep working away so I didn't have time to stop and think."
Morag just looks at her brother with a sad face as he continues to talk: "I just didn't want time to think that I wouldn't get to see Rocco again or Bianca. Both of them have become like grandchildren to me and I don't want to lose either of them."
"Alfred, please em."
"They're just kids. They had their whole lives ahead of them. With Rocco about to become a dad and Bianca just starting married life with Heath."
"Now look, there is still hope and that's what we have to rely on."
"We only just got Rocco back safely for god sake." Alf says thinking about everything Rocco had been through lately.
"And we are going to him back again. All of them." Morag reminds him "I know we will."
While the two of them had been talking, Rachel had appeared as she needed something for a patient. Listening to their conversation made her feel more guilty than she already was. She turns and walks away just as Sid walks towards the Trauma Bay.
(6:55pm) 2 hours and 9 minutes later…
Summer Bay – Surf Club – Angelos – Main Restaurant Area
The search times had just arrived back and now John, Brax, Tony and Charlie were now walking into the restaurant where everyone was sat eating and talking.
"I'm glad to see you sitting still for once today." Morag said giving her brother a bottle of water.
Noticing the four walking into the restaurant, Alf asks: "What are you doing back? I thought you were going to sleep at the base camp with the other searchers?"
Pulling his SES jacket off, Tony says: "You guys haven't heard?"
"Heard what?" Amanda asks him as she too was sat with them all.
"There's bush fires down near the border." Tony explains to them.
"What's that got to do with us?" Alf quizzes his friend.
Brax looked at Tony who nodded for him to take over: "Well, we need extra manpower down there and the police have made the decision that our search can be scaled back."
"What? They can't do that!" Irene says.
Dean who had been sat beside Willow at the bar said: "They are aware that it's one of their own who is also missing?"
"You've only been searching for a few days." Ricky points out.
Nodding their heads all of them sits down besides the others.
"I know." Brax replies "But they're sending people where they think they are going to be most needed."
John then follows on from Brax to say: "I tried to argue but."
"This is ridiculous." April says once John had finished speaking.
Realising what Brax had just said, Alf asks: "You said scaled back?"
Brax nods his head and so do the rest of them because they all know what they say next probably won't go down well.
"What's left of our search party?" Alf questions them all.
"The police aren't calling it a rescue anymore." Charlie informs them all "As far as they're concerned it's now a body recovery mission."
Everyone goes silent when the youngest of the four men tells them what the police had decided. None of them were expecting to hear that.
(7:43pm) 48 minutes later…
Summer Bay – Yabbie Creek – Northern Districts Hospital – Cassie and Heath's Room
The people who were still at the hospital were all gathered in one room just talking about what was happening, when Brax, Tony and Charlie enter the room.
"I thought you three would be staying at the base camp tonight." Casey says when spots them all.
Sighing, knowing that they need to tell them all the same news that had already been told to the others, Brax starts to talk: "There's been some news that we need to tell you all."
"You've found them?" Heath asks them.
Shaking his head, Tony goes to speak this time: "No, we haven't found them. I don't know how to say this, so I'll just say it but they're scaling back the search."
A collective "WHAT?!" is said by everyone in the room.
"Why?" Cassie asks as she can feel the tears starting to form.
"There's fires near the border so they need more people down there to help." Said Tony.
"So, what about our search? They can always help us they are sorted down there." Sally asks not understanding why they can't just have them rejoin later.
"We tried to convince the police, but they were having it." Charlie says to them.
Johnny and Heath don't like the idea that their fellow officers could do this both say: "What about the fact that Colby is missing? He's one of their own."
"Yeah they don't care about that because as we told the others its now being treated as a body recovery mission instead." Brax lets them know which again makes everyone go quiet.