This Is Where I belong
This is a fic using the story of the new Sunday night drama 'Wild at Heart'. I will try to recap the basic story for those who haven't seen the programme, but as I do not own it, the story is mainly from my own mind. I am hoping for some help from Larka18, my Africa/Lion/Wolf obsessed friend, as she has the knowledge.
Chapter One
Rosie Trevanion sat on the back porch looking out at her back garden - the African bush. The air was close, and she could feel a storm coming. The light was slipping slowly away, leaving purple and grey stains in the sky, and it was very quiet. Rosie sighed. Miranda, her lion cub, was lying sleepily at her feet, and didn't notice when a salty tear landed on her head.
In the house, things were much louder.
"Mum! Evan won't stop pointing Mr Trevanion's tranquilizer gun at me!" Olivia yelled, ducking under the kitchen table.
"EVAN! You have to stop this obsession with guns! That's how you got into so much trouble at school in England!"
The kitchen went quiet as Evan lowered the gun.
"It wasn't even loaded."
"That doesn't make it ok to point it at someone. Give it back to Danny." Evan's mother, Sarah Trevanion, looked tired and irritable. Her husband Danny had just walked in. He took the gun from Evan, frowning.
"Where's Rosie?"
"She's out on the back porch. Miranda is with her."
Danny walked slowly through the kitchen door, placing the gun in its cabinet.
Sarah sighed.
"Evan, you know Danny is very sad today. Please, try to be a good boy. You too Olivia. Please?"
She hugged her two children close, trying to imagine what Danny was going through.
Out on the porch, Danny broke the silence.
"What you doing?"
Rosie didn't turn around.
"Thinking."
He sat down next to her on the steps. Miranda growled in her sleep, and pawed the air.
"What do you think she's dreaming about?" Danny said softly.
"Dunno. Her family. Her mum. Maybe she misses her mum." Rosie looked up at the sky.
"She isn't the only one," She whispered.
Danny looked at his daughter.
"I miss your mum too. And I'm going to miss you. But you know, she will still be there, with you in England. And here with me in Africa."
"So, she won't be mad with me for leaving you here?" Rosie shuffled into the candle light, the tears on her cheeks sparkling.
"Oh Rosie, of course not. She would be proud of you!" Danny hugged his daughter tightly, trying to keep his voice steady.
"She always wanted you to go to university. That's why she set your bank account when you were just a sproggling in her arms."
They laughed.
"Dad?"
"Yes Rosie?"
"I'm gonna miss you."
Danny kissed the top of his daughter's head and sighed, a huge lump in his throat.
"I'm gonna miss you too."
The storm had passed quickly, but the tension in the air had remained until the following morning. Danny was setting up the surgery for his first patient of the day- an injured monkey. He ran the vet's surgery at Mara, one of Africa's biggest game parks. His business partners, Alex Tate and Anders Du Plessis had lived in Africa all their lives and had been arch enemies. Then the Trevanions had come to Africa to set free a monkey Danny had saved back in England. They had fallen in love with Africa, and Du Plessis had persuaded them to stay and help him set up a game park to cure and release injured animals back into the wild. After realising that they didn't have a chance against Mara, Danny had made a business deal with Alex Tate, its owner, and added Du Plessis's establishment to it. Now his wife ran the hotel, Nomsa, Du Plessis's housekeeper, had become the cook, and Danny had been appointed as head vet with two assistants to help him. Mara had over fifty staff, and what seemed like every kind of animal in Africa.
Looking out of the surgery window, Danny could see why he had fallen in love with it.
He heard the jeep draw up noisily outside, and his wife came in with Matt, the junior vetinary assistant. Between them they were carrying the cage with the unconscious monkey in it, which they placed on the table.
Sarah straightened up and tried to get her breath back.
"That was heavy for a monkey."
Matt was removing the cover from the cage, and seemed to be in another world. Danny smiled at his wife.
"Thanks for the help. All the others are out with Alex tagging the new Buffalo's."
He indicated for Sarah to follow him out of the surgery, leaving Matt alone with the monkey.
"So, how's Matt?" Danny asked.
"Not good. He is really upset. He really thought Rosie would change her mind and stay."
Sarah crossed her arms and looked at the floor.
"She's definitely going then?"
"Yep. Flies back to England tomorrow morning."
"That soon? Evan and Olivia asked if they could throw a leaving party for her. It will have to be tonight."
Danny thought for a moment.
"Hmm. Alex said we could use the bar if we wanted. That way everyone can say a proper goodbye." He looked out of the window sadly.
"You ok?"
He sighed.
"I'm happy that she is getting what she wants, but I can't help wanting her to stay here."
"Isn't that want any parent wants? I feel bad enough and I'm not even her mum, so God only knows what you're going through."
She hugged him tightly, wishing there was something useful she could say. But there wasn't.
Sarah found Evan and Olivia trying to crack coconuts outside the bar. There were several boxes littered around them, filled with colourful decorations. Evan was about to throw a coconut at a wall when Olivia stopped him, gesturing to her mother.
"Oh, hi mum." Evan said lowering the coconut.
"Hello. What are you doing, Evan?"
Evan sighed.
"I was trying to work out how to crack a coconut. We have been trying all morning, but we just can't do it."
Sarah smiled and folded her arms.
"Well why don't you ask Mr Du Plessis? I'm sure he's cracked a good many coconuts in his lifetime."
"I did. He said 'throw it against a good hard wall boy'."
Evan's impression of the tetchy little African man made his mother laugh.
"Evan I don't think he meant it. What is all this stuff anyway?"
"We are getting the bar ready for Rosie's party tonight," Olivia said. "Nomsa found all these decorations in the attic, and Mr Tate said we could decorate the bar with them."
"Well then, why don't you leave the coconuts to someone who knows how to crack them without causing too much damage, and get on with decorating the bar? It will be a lovely surprise for Rosie tonight."
Sarah picked up a box of decorations and led the way into the bar, closely followed by Olivia and Evan.
"Ok mum, we can manage from here," Olivia said matter of factly. "We want to decorate the bar as a present to Rosie. After all, she did give me Miranda."
Sarah ruffled Olivia's hair, ignoring the disgusted face her daughter made.
"Ok. I'll be in the hotel if you need me, and Danny is up at the surgery. See you later."
She left them to it, and made her way up the chalky path to the hotel she ran at Mara.
"Mrs Trevanion!"
Alex Tate was running after her, followed by Matt and Mr Du Plessis.
"Alex? I thought you guys were out tagging."
"We finished early. Have Evan and Olivia started decorating the bar yet? Only I saw Rosie heading that way just now."
"They're in there now with Nomsa getting it ready! She's going to find out!"
"I'll go see if I can stall her." Matt ran off down the path, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. It wasn't long before he caught up with her.
"Rosie?" he yelled.
She turned around. "Matt? I thought you were helping Dad today."
Matt leant on a post to catch his breath.
"I was but it didn't take long, the monkey wasn't as bad as we thought. He said I could have the rest of the day off."
"Oh, ok. You wanna go get a drink?" Rosie gestured towards the bar, which wasn't very far away. Matt could just see Evan in the window, hanging something up.
"Er, yeah but let's go up to the house to get one, I want to talk to you."
He led her in the opposite direction to the bar, towards the house the staff shared.
"What time does your plane leave in the morning?" Matt changed the subject.
"Eight thirty. Why?"
"I wanna be up to say goodbye."
There was a short silence as they walked.
"Are you ever coming back to Africa?" Matt asked, looking out over the fields, his hands in his pockets.
"Probably. I haven't really thought beyond uni yet. It depends."
"On what?"
"On what grades I come away with. And how my life goes in England. You never know, I might hate being back there. But then again, I might love it and want to settle down."
"What about your dad?"
"He's got Sarah and this place. Besides, I do his head in anyway."
They laughed, stopping to study the view.
"I can't say I won't miss this place though." Rosie sighed.
"Well, you know where it is."
Matt led the way into the house, and poured out two drinks.
"So tell me about this university of yours."