Thanks again for the reviews I've been getting. I've struggled writing some of these chapters as I wasn't sure where I wanted it to go but I've got a clearer plan now and I hope you all enjoy where the story goes! Here's the next chapter :)


Pulling up on the side of the road, Casey grinned to himself before getting out the car, Denny also getting out, walking around the car to him. She was confused at first, but chose against questioning it as Casey got a picnic basket from the back seat that they collected from the diner beforehand. Casey then led her into the forest until they found a path trail and followed it for a while.

"Is this where you plan on murdering me?" Denny asks, chuckling lightly.

"Yep, right after we've ate all this!" Casey laughs. "It's just up ahead."

"What is?"

"You'll see." Casey smiles.

Walking further into the forest, Casey took them off the trail into deep brush until they came to a clearing that overlooked the Bay. He had come after his shift to set it all up for the date and made it all romantic. He had laid the blanket out and put a covering over where they would eat, hanging fairy lights throughout it. Glancing at Denny, he smiled as she stood in awe.

"This is amazing." She mutters, throwing herself into Casey's arms. "You're amazing."

"This is why I thought having dinner would be better. We can watch the sun set after we've eaten." Casey says as they walk over to the blanket, placing the basket down.

"It's going to look stunning from up here." Denny says, kissing Casey as they sit down. "What did I do to deserve you."

"More like what did I do." Casey chuckles. "I'm so lucky to have you."

"Yeah you are. And I want you to know I am in this for life. I know in the beginning I wasn't keen on your family and the ways they had, but they're your family." Denny smiles. "They're actually pretty cool as well."

"Oh yeah?" Casey smirks as he leans back on his elbows, glancing over at her as she leans down next to him.

"Yeah, you've all changed a lot more. Plus Brax is pretty cool for giving me a job and letting me stay permanently." She grins. "Plus Kyle is the best for many reasons and is more like a brother to me now."

"Yeah, same here." Casey nods. "Well, in some ways he is. I never thought we'd be able to get past some stuff, but we're brothers, it's what we chose."

"Have you heard from Josh since they took off?" She asks, not having thought about it for a while.

"Nope, nothing. Weirdly enough, it's what made me and Kyle closer. He's been there for me more than them, and we're basically related through Brax and Heath. Who cares that we don't share a parent anymore?" Casey says.

"That's another reason I love you. You're accepting of things that can't be helped. You need your brothers and I could never take that away from you."

"Sometimes I feel like I rely on them too much." Casey mutters.

"Since when?" Denny frowns.

"After the shooting when we said we wanted to take time out to travel, I stuck to them as much as I could." Casey says. "I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible and I guess I did struggle a lot when we went on our honeymoon as they weren't there."

"I knew you were, you should have told me." Denny says, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Well we're back now and although things have been a lot different, it feels right to be home. Hopefully Heath has good news and we could get back to full normality." Casey lightly smiles.

"Yeah, that would be really nice. We'll just have to wait and see what the next few hours bring. Now let's tuck into this." She says, opening the picnic basket up.


"Come on, Kyle, where are you?" Brax mutters as he drives around looking for his brother.

He had brought Bruno with him for Kyle, once he found him, hoping he would help his nerves. He wouldn't understand why Kyle would have left Bruno behind after he relied on him a lot. He had searched all along the Bay, the only place left that he could think of was the beach, so drove there, parking up before getting out.

"Come on boy." Brax says as he gets Bruno out, putting the harness on him before making his way down the beach.

Walking along, he had no luck, no one had seen him either. Brax had reluctantly called Casey asking if he'd seen him, which he hadn't. Casey wanted to help look, but Brax had managed to convince him to enjoy his date with Denny as he knew they both needed alone time with nothing else to focus on. Carrying on down the beach, Bruno suddenly took off, so Brax followed him.

"Kyle." He breathes with relief, walking over to him. "Are you okay?" He asks as he sits down next to him.

"Yeah." Kyle mutters, stroking Bruno and relaxing more as he did so.

"Why did you take off like that, without your phone or Bruno?" Brax asks, although having thought that Bruno helped him find Kyle.

"I just needed some time alone to think about some stuff. I just don't understand how a second search is going to bring anything new up when nothing did in the first place. I'm finally in a really good headspace and I don't want that to change. It took too much for me to get to this point, and I guess I'm just scared about doing that stuff again." Kyle mutters, a brief glance at Brax before looking out over the ocean.

"You're a lot stronger than that now and it's good that you're scared to do it again, it means you know it was the wrong thing to do in the first place. You've got plenty of ways to cope that you got from your counsellors, and you've also got us. I didn't want you to know when you came home, because I felt the same. I can't see you relapse again but the cops are confident they've got her."

"How confident are they? It could just be another baby that looks like her or their own." Kyle says with a small shrug.

"Heath has gone with them to see, and he was going to call me back as soon as he knew. I know we should have asked your first but we wanted you to get closure and you were still in a fragile head space." Brax sighs.

"I understand that. And I'm sorry for taking off like that, especially without Bruno with me." Kyle says.

"It's okay because you're fine. Just don't do it again because you're giving me more grey hairs that Emilia." Brax jokes.

"It's not the grey hairs you need to worry about." Kyle smirks as he stands up.

"I'm really not liking this new attitude you've got since coming home." Brax shakes his head as he also stands up. "I don't remember it being this bad before."

"Must be the early onset dementia. You should watch out for more signs so you can get a proper diagnosis." Kyle laughs, walking away as Brax scoffs to himself, unable to be annoyed when his little brother was doing a lot better now.

"You need a zimmer frame to help you up the beach or are you just going to wait for someone to come and pick you up?" Kyle grins as he turns around.

"You better watch that mouth of yours cause I won't put up with anymore." Brax firmly says, as Kyle chuckles to himself.

"Let's just go home." Kyle says, noticing Brax's ute in the car park, so walks to wards it with his brother and dog.

"Do you want me to check in with Heath?" Brax asks.

"Uh…" Kyle trails off as he thinks about it. "Can I just have a bit more time before you do?"

"Sure, that's fine. Just let me know when you're ready and I'll call him." Brax lightly smiles as they get into the ute to head home.