Noah sat on the sofa, the strange envelope in his hands. His mother had already opened it so he knew that if he took out whatever was inside she wouldn't know he had looked. It still felt a bit weird, the idea of reading her mail, but she'd been so secretive about it that it made him worry. What if it was something bad?

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked as she came down the stairs.

Noah stuffed the envelope under one of the cushions behind him, "nothing."

"You are the world's worst liar," Sarah walked over, reached down and plucked the envelope out before he could stop her.

"Give it back."

"What is it?" Sarah examined the item and looked back over at him, "is this the letter gran said was just junk mail?"

"Yep."

"What does it say?"

"I don't know, I haven't looked."

Sarah rolled her eyes and pulled out the paper, "if it's just junk it can't be anything private, so... Oh."

"What?"

Sarah held out the pages so he could see for himself, "I knew she wasn't over Vanessa, but I didn't think they were back together or anything."

"Why wouldn't she tell us?"

"She loves keeping secrets, remember? Maybe they're just dating and she's got this because she wants to propose again."

"What about Mack?"

"He was just a bit of fun, a distraction from her pain over losing Vanessa. It's probably why he hasn't been around as much lately."

Noah stood up, "I'm going to ask her."

"Good luck with that. If she wanted us to know she'd have told us."

"Then I'll ask Vanessa."

"I'll come with you."

"Why?"

"Because I want to know too, duh," Sarah didn't mention it was also because she was worried he would say something stupid.


The vets wasn't very busy so Vanessa finished up some paperwork and went to check on the animals that were staying overnight. She heard the front door open, so she stopped stroking the poorly guinea pig and closed it's cage.

"How can I help?" she sanitised her hands as she walked through to the waiting room. "Hey Noah, Sarah. Is something wrong?"

"Why didn't you tell us you and mum are dating again?" Noah blurted out the question, causing Sarah the desire to face-palm at his bluntness.

"What? Who told you that?" Vanessa asked.

Noah held out the letter, "were you just going to wait until it was official?"

"Noah, I can explain," Vanessa looked over at Sarah for help. "Why don't you sit down and we can talk about it."

Sarah nodded, "that sounds like a good idea."

Noah stubbornly remained standing, so Sarah stayed by his side. Vanessa took a deep breath.

"We're not dating."

"Liar!"

"Noah!" Sarah hit his shoulder with the back of her hand, gently enough for him to feel it without causing any actual pain.

"I'm not lying," Vanessa assured him. "We've agreed to be friends, to let Moses and Johnny see each other again. The only reason that letter exists is because Charity came around to mine the other evening, we were drunk and we don't really remember anything, just that she filled out the request. We aren't together."

"You know she still wears your engagement rings, right? On a chain around her neck. She stopped wearing them after she got together with Mack, but since you came back to the village and they split up she put them back on."

"I would have thought she'd get rid of them."

"Sell them, you mean?"

Vanessa shrugged, "or just hide them away. I made it pretty clear I didn't want to see her again after what happened."

"She wouldn't give up that easily," Sarah told her.

"Like I said before, we're going to be friends but that's it."

With the reassurances given, and Noah a little calmer, she diverted the conversation to them, asking how they were and what they'd been up to. They stuck around for about half an hour, then headed home. Vanessa closed up the office and headed over to Rhona's.


Talking to Rhona helped. Vanessa knew she could tell her best friend anything and Rhona would just be there supporting her. With Tracy, there was always that overly-protective-sister side, telling her what she thought Vanessa should do and how she didn't deserve what Charity had done. Tracy would always be on her side, but sometimes that meant she stopped seeing things from other people's perspective. Vanessa had done the same when they'd found out Nate had cheated on her sister.

"I'm not saying a kiss is different, it's still cheating," Vanessa was explaining, "but..."

"But Charity does reckless things when she's doubting herself."

"Doubting how much I love her... loved her."

"Hey, no judgement here remember?"

"I know, I just..."

"You're scared to trust her again."

"Maybe."

Rhona poured her another glass of wine, "so maybe she needs to show you, and by staying friends for a while you can see how that goes, and find out without getting as hurt."

"Plus it's Charity, she'll probably get back together with Mack or find someone else."

"Ness, if you want to try again you need to tell her. I'm not saying you have to decide right this minute, but I don't want to see you hurting because you haven't been honest with her about how you feel."

"It was so hard walking away, I loved her so much, I just don't know if I could handle it not working out again. I think it's best if we're just friends, at least we'd still be in each others lives."

"Okay, if that's what you want."

Vanessa nodded and drank from her glass, feeling like she had made the right decision.


Vanessa spent the night at Rhona's. They'd stayed up talking late into the night, subjects ranging from their uni days to their children, finishing off a couple of bottles of wine. As Vanessa slept, her mind released the memories of what happened the night Charity had stayed over.

They'd talked on the sofa for a while, Charity making jokes which she'd laughed at, not realising they'd moved closer until her hand came to rest on Charity's.

"I missed you so much," Charity told her.

"I missed you too."

"I never stopped loving you," Charity reached for her necklace, showing Vanessa the rings, "I'll never take these off until you agree to wear them again."

Getting teary-eyed, Vanessa leaned in and kissed her. Charity was hesitant at first, but when Vanessa didn't pull away she fell into the kiss. No-one else's kisses had ever felt the way Charity's kisses felt. Vanessa wrapped her arms around the blonde, scared to let her go.

Then Charity was placing the ring on her finger, saying she didn't want to waste anymore time, they didn't know what else life would throw at them, and Vanessa had let her. She suggested heading out to go and get married right away, but Vanessa reminded her that their marriage licence would have expired. Instead they sat together, trying to fill out the online form to request an appointment to get a new one, the alcohol they'd consumed making it difficult to focus on the questions. Once it had been submitted, Vanessa had taken Charity's hand and led her upstairs where they passed out, exhausted, together.


Vanessa decided not to tell Rhona about her returned memories the next morning. She rushed out of her friend's home, only staying long enough for a cup off coffee in place of breakfast, and headed for her own, needing time to process everything. Running into Charity near the pub, she tried to hide her tumbling emotions. Part of her wanted to grab Charity and kiss her again, the other part wasn't ready.

"Where are you going in a hurry?" Charity asked.

"Home." Vanessa sighed, "sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"S'okay."

"No, it's not. Look Charity..."

"You've changed your mind about being friends then?"

"What? No!"

"Oh," Charity looked relieved.

"Do you want to come over to mine later? Maybe have lunch together or something?"

Charity brightened up at the offer, "really?"

"Yeah."

"See you around 12ish?"

"That's fine."

Vanessa told herself she could do this. She could have a lunch with Charity as just friends, make normal friendly conversation. The vet diverted off to David's to grab a fresh loaf of bread and other lunch supplies.


Charity arrived at Vanessa promptly at 12, feeling hopeful. She knocked on the door and waited for the vet to answer.

"Hi, come in," Vanessa didn't leave her waiting long. "I hope you're hungry."

"Yes," she followed Vanessa to the kitchen area where the table had been laid with a pile of sandwiches neatly cut into little triangles, "how many people have you invited for lunch?"

"I got a bit carried away," Vanessa admitted, putting the kettle on. "Tea or coffee?"

"Tea, ta," Charity sat down at the table, hoping that she wasn't expected to eat half of what was on offer.

When Vanessa brought the drinks over, Charity selected two of the sandwiches and put them on her plate. She remembered how Vanessa always used to cut the sandwiches for the kids packed lunches into triangles, saying they fit better into the lunch boxes.

"I really think we can make this work," Vanessa told her.

"Huh?" Charity was just about to bite into one of the sandwiches, trying to focus on them instead of staring at Vanessa like she wanted to.

"The friends thing. I know what happened the other night could have made things awkward, but we were drunk and got carried away."

"Yeah. Whatever we said I guess we can just blame it on the alcohol."

"Exactly. I mean, what you said about the rings..."

"Wait, you remember what happened?"

"It's been coming back to me."

"I'm sorry if I said anything I shouldn't have."

"No you were really sweet." Vanessa frowned, "why, what do you think you might have said?"

"Uh... nothing."

"Charity!"

"I just thought I might have done something to get rid of your engagement ring, trying to show that I wanted us to have a new beginning, I dunno," Charity looked down at her plate, her fingers moving nervously, "I seem to have lost it."

"Oh." It was Vanessa's turn to look worried, "did you check the jacket you were wearing?"

"Why?"

"I put it back in the pocket in the morning."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I thought you'd find it."

"I can't believe I took it off the chain," Charity brought the necklace out to look down at the remaining rings, "what happened?"

"You, uh... we kissed. You said you'd never take the rings off unless I was going to wear them and, well you know what you're like with words. You just said all this romantic stuff that had my drunk-brain turning upside-down and..."

"And?"

"We sort of got engaged."

"Sort of?"

"We were drunk, it doesn't count. That's why when I woke up and saw the ring I panicked, I couldn't remember what had happened at that point and so I took it off."

Charity smiled, "I'm pretty sure I was drunk when we got engaged last time. Mildly drunk, sure, but still..."

"That was different."

Charity reached out and placed a hand over Vanessa's, "my feelings haven't changed."

"Well mine..." Vanessa couldn't finish the sentence, but she didn't pull her hand away either. "I'm not ready for that."

"Do you think..." Charity felt her heart racing as she looked into Vanessa's eyes, "do you think you'd ever give me another chance?"

"What about Mac?"

"We're so over, I swear. It was never something serious, I just..." Charity shrugged, "I don't know what it was. He was just so persistent."

Vanessa slowly turned her hand over, so her palm touched Charity's.

"Does this mean...?"

"I need to know that I can trust you," Vanessa told her.

"I swear, on whatever you want me to."

"Just promise me you'll talk to me, no matter what. That you'll tell me the truth, even if you're scared."

Charity leaned forward, as if to kiss her, but Vanessa held back.

"Promise me. This is the last time, I won't let you break my heart again."

"I promise, oh of course I promise."

With those words ringing in their ears, Vanessa kissed her.