Disclaimer: I don't own 'Home and Away' and I'd never claim to doing so!
A/N: This takes place in the near future. The problem with writing Home and Away fics is that whatever you think of the writers do to, so who knows, this may just happen!
Thankful
Home and Away
PG
Belle/Drew
One-Shot
He knew what she felt.
There was no denying that there was something there, thankfully.
The fire incident had proven that.
But he knew, just as anyone else did, that the Ric problem would not simply go away. And, as much as he wanted to believe things were good enough, nothing could stop that niggling feeling he had that one day, soon, she would return to him and leave him alone again.
He'd never admit it, but he was never more scared of anything than he was now. The fear rose in his heart and spread through his veins so that every part of him ached with dread.
Was this what love really felt like? Was this what all desired?
He couldn't imagine a worse fate than the one he was seeing now…
He couldn't find her at the beach and she wasn't at home, so he'd headed to the diner in a hope of finding her there.
She was there alright, but she wasn't alone.
Sitting across from her was Ric Dalby, her ex.
Instead of joining them, he turned and left the diner for he saw they were not having one of their usual fights. Instead they were smiling, warmly.
He took a seat on the beach, the same place he'd first realised that she was just like him, nothing more than a social outcast with a stubborn streak and a high opinion of herself.
It felt like yesterday.
She'd been trying to talk Ric into coming to her party.
Playing so sweet and innocent.
He'd seen right through her charade like it was glass.
Then, once Ric had left, the true girl came out.
Quick-witted, spiteful and cunning. Oh and was she smart. Not book-smart either, world-smart. She knew how to play, and when to do so.
It felt to him as though the lights had suddenly been turned on. Here she was. His missing half.
So he'd played her games with her, played the bystander, the ally, the friend. Until the situation he needed fell into his lap and she was finally his.
For years he felt he had waited for her and now here she was.
He never thought he'd find her in a perfect little seaside town where everyday was sunny and everyone knew everyone else. Pleasantville.
And here, among the sunflowers and puppy-dogs was miss-anti-social, miss-pariah. His perfect girl.
It was all thanks to a bee. Well, a bee and some good timing on his part.
He'd intended to go for a walk, but he was again drawn to her place.
He thought he'd stay for just a few minutes or at least until she kicked him out, but she hadn't expelled him last time and he assumed she wouldn't do it again.
Actually, he was worried about her. Most days he rarely saw her outside.
Instead she'd just stay at home, alone. It wasn't normal.
'Well, at least she's got me for company.' He chuckled to himself as he headed up her driveway. As much as that counted for anything.
He knew she'd rather have Ric.
When he reached her door he knocked, and as he stopped he heard her.
A coughing, spluttering sound. He let himself in.
He only had time for a small gasp before he was right beside her.
She was turning red and clutching her throat. He could tell that something was terribly wrong.
He called an ambulance and then Amanda, the most he could do.
And then he waited; hoping help would come quickly.
He'd just found her. What would he do if she left?
Eventually she found him.
He knew it wouldn't take long.
It really depended on how long she spent talking to Ric.
A black-haired boy on a clean yellow beach was no 'where's Wally?'.
"Hey, I've been looking for you. What you doing down here?" She asked, sitting down beside him.
He shrugged. "Nothing, really." He glanced at her sideways. "What you been up to?"
The cheeky smile left her lips and she glanced away from him. "Lunch. Boring! You know, went to see Irene." She looked at him and smiled again. "Would've been more interesting if you were there."
He nodded. "I wasn't hungry."
As if to prove him a liar, his stomach growled.
This time she glanced at him sideways, raising her eyebrows. "Yeah? C'mon. I know you, you're always hungry."
He shrugged again. "Not today."
She frowned. "Drew?" Her voice soft and drawn out.
Drew mimicked her. "Belle."
Belle sighed. "Alright, what's your problem now?"
He finally turned his face towards her. "How was lunch?"
Belle's expression fell. He'd seen her and Ric.
She opened her mouth to explain but he'd already stood up.
He glanced down at her one last time and then turned and walked away.
Belle just sighed.
Belle could remember the first time they'd really talked.
She'd been at Amanda's (even now she couldn't call it home) and had been flipping through a magazine with as much interest as if she were reading her math textbook.
Amanda and Ryan were acting weird, and as they left he had turned up on her doorstep, stating that he was going to keep the miserable 'Princess Belle' company.
She'd told him to leave, attacked him with pillows, but all the time she couldn't help smiling knowing that he'd snuck away from home to keep her company.
He was supposed to stay for 10 minutes. They sat and talked for almost 2 hours, until Amanda came home and she swept him out the door, a strange feeling of disappointment growing as she shut the door behind him. But his smile stayed in her mind. His words, his life so much like hers, and the fact he listened. It was nice to finally have someone who listened.
Irene was always busy. Amanda, well, she still couldn't really open up to her. And Ric never listened, and she was sure he'd never intended to either.
Belle could only smile.
This egotistical boarding school boy.
This quick-tongued guy.
This outcast. This troublemaker. This copper's son.
Was he really what she'd been looking for all this time?
So long ago now Belle had come to the Bay looking for her mother.
She'd been living rough, until a kind stranger had stumbled across her path and had dared to give her a chance.
He took pity on her, and he always had just done that.
Even when they were together, when Belle thought she'd found what was right, it had all been one-sided.
And then, lost in the bush after the helicopter crash, he had gone back to his ex.
That was when she'd tried to get him back anyway she could.
That was when she had enlisted Drew's help.
She'd always felt something for him.
Some strange attraction the moment she had first seen him.
And from what she could tell, the feeling had been mutual.
It was strange. She'd never experienced a mutual attraction before.
As her thoughts turned from Ric to Drew she started to realise that what she was doing to get back Ric was a waste of time.
He was never coming back to her.
And did she really want him to anyway?
After he left her for dead after the bee-sting, had been so self-involved he couldn't hear that her pleas for help were real, she knew that whatever she had imagined was there was gone.
And then, to go for the cliché so many used, along came her knight.
He saved her life. And that was not being overdramatic.
As she heard his voice, if only from a distance, she knew.
Forget Ric she couldn't. But she could replace all her thoughts of him with a new figure. And it felt right too.
Drew's slightly hunched figure pushed open the door of his uncle's house and headed for the lounge room where he could only sit and stare at the roof.
He tried to block out any images of Belle and Ric he had seen.
Boy he hated that guy.
Sure, he'd tried to break into his foster-mum's car.
Okay, so that fight had bred some hate for him. But Drew had known from the start that there was another type of dislike there.
He had, eating out of his hand, the girl that Drew wanted. And he didn't care.
He didn't care how Belle felt. He didn't care how it hurt Drew to watch her play stupid and beg like a fool. All he cared about was himself.
It was people like Ric that had made Drew's life such a misery.
His selfish parents. His mother dumped him. His father bought his distance.
His selfish peers. His 'friends' didn't want to know him after he left the boarding school. His old friends from before school just pretended he didn't exist.
Selfish people everywhere, and no one had time for him.
Not even his uncle. He'd taken Drew in out of pity, and a brother-bond of some sort. Not because he cared. No one cared about him. Because no one understood him.
Except her.
Hidden underneath those acts, that smile, those false words was a girl like him. She understood him, and she wanted to know him, even if it had taken a while for her to admit so. Even if it had taken him inviting himself over before she opened up. Even then, she'd wanted to listen. And he'd needed to listen to her. That was real.
Belle kicked off her shoes angrily and watched them fly down towards the water. She then buried her feet in the sand and rested her head against her knees.
She'd really done it this time.
All the trouble she'd caused for herself before. All the people that hated her. That were disappointed in her. She could live with those.
But this, a harmless mistake and now he wouldn't even let her explain.
She felt empty, like someone had come along since Drew had left and had just pulled out all her innards and all else inside her. She was a shell. A lonely, broken, stupid shell.
She'd gone to the diner to wait for him. She knew he'd come looking for her. She loved that!
She'd been talking to Irene when Ric had walked in with Cassie.
Belle couldn't deny that there was still some attraction there, but all feelings she had now she could only attribute to Drew. He'd really put some colour back into her life, and she felt alive again.
Cassie had cast her a look, but it wasn't a rude one. It almost bordered on a smile.
Belle had frowned and passed it off, until Cassie came to the counter to order and asked Belle to join them. Said they needed to talk.
Belle wasn't a changed person all of a sudden, but she knew that she needed to give Cassie and Ric a chance to tell her what they needed to. She felt it wouldn't be abuse. And she was intrigued. So she joined them.
Her jaw almost dropped when Cassie pushed half a muffin in front of her and told her they wanted to talk about ending this stupid feud they had going on.
She just frowned however. "You hate me."
Cassie shook her head. "I don't hate you. I didn't like your attitude, or the way you would do anything to break up Ric and I, but I never hated you. Hate is a strong word."
Belle glanced between Ric and Cassie. "So, you've agreed, as a team, to suddenly stop disliking me?"
Ric cleared his throat. "A peace treaty, between you, me, Cass and Drew."
Belle nodded. "Yeah. Okay. I can't talk on behalf of Drew but I'll agree to that."
She didn't sound too appreciative, she knew that, because she didn't feel it.
It seemed kind of stupid to her. Kind of babyish.
She'd always hold this grudge against Cassie. But at the same she thanked her.
If she'd never gotten between her and Ric, would she have this thing with Drew now? She didn't believe she would. So, as a sign of goodwill, she ate her muffin.
Blowing sand into her own face as a kind of punishment, Belle tried to work out when Drew had walked in.
She assumed it was just after Cassie had excused herself to go to the bathroom.
They'd been joking, the smile on Belle's face only slightly real, and when Cass had gone Ric had continued with his story about his altercation with a boy in their year at school.
Ric had been laughing along at his telling, but Belle's smile wasn't for his story. Rather she was hearing in her head Drew telling her a similar story about his altercation with the same kid. That must've been what he had seen.
But how could she explain she had been smiling because of him?
Drew stared at the ground.
He hated this. He needed to know what had happened between them.
What had gone wrong to make Belle want to hang out with Ric again?
What had Drew said?
What had he done?
Was it even to do with him?
He thought that what they had had been fun.
Had been about having fun.
Had been about breaking rules, being yourself, not doing what everyone else did.
But maybe she got bored of it?
Maybe she got sick of him?
What did he have that Ric didn't have?
Nothing except a strange sense of humour and a severe inferiority complex.
Drew dropped his head into his hands.
Great, now he was comparing himself to Ric and questioning his own identity.
What had she done to him?
Retrieving her shoes, Belle trudged, barefooted, along the beach.
Her head to the ground, thinking of all she had lost.
Her memories took themselves back to the first time they'd kissed.
Ric had just left, leaving with him the thought of anything between him and her.
He'd come over to see how he was, but instead had outlined that they couldn't even be friends. It hadn't been concern. He'd wanted to clear his conscience.
Drew had turned up not long after; with Amanda leaving she let him inside.
As she told her tale of woe Drew listened, remarking that he never knew what she'd seen in him, that she could do better. That any guy would treat her better.
That was when Belle realized exactly what he'd just said.
"Oh yeah, like who?" She'd replied, playing her own game.
Drew had just raised his eyebrows at her. "Do you really have to ask that?"
And then he'd kissed her, and she couldn't help but kiss him back.
After what felt like forever, but couldn't've been any more than a minute, they broke apart. Much to her own disappointment, the first words that rolled from Belle's lips was that they should slow things down.
Drew had taken it in his stride, saying that if she looked deep inside herself she'd find that she'd gotten over Ric ages before.
"You're pretty sure of yourself." Belle had teased.
"I am when I know what I want." He'd replied cheekily.
And then, when his lips touched hers again, she knew he was right. Ric was as good as gone.
And then the fire. What had that been?
At first she'd thought it was a way of proving to herself how she felt about him.
And then she thought it had been a way of proving to him how she felt.
But it wasn't either of those.
Then she thought that maybe it was a way of proving to the world how she felt.
But when did she start caring what the world thought?
So she came to the conclusion that it was just what you did when you felt like she did.
After all, what would she do if he went to prison? Would she be able to go back to the life she had lead before? Unloved. Empty. Alone?
She didn't think she could.
A crazy sacrifice. If you're going to take him, hell, take me too!
Belle didn't hear the figure coming up behind her until they were right next to her.
She glanced at the person, shocked to see Cassie smiling at her.
"What's wrong?" She asked, seeing Belle's crestfallen expression.
Belle sighed. Was she going to tell Cassie, the girl she still didn't like or trust despite an earlier peace treaty, that her stupid treaty had cost her the one good thing she had left?
Belle stubbornly shook her head.
Cassie bit her lip and frowned. "Belle, I know we're not friends and we probably never will be, but if things are really bad then I'll be happy to listen."
Belle dropped her shoes and followed them onto the sand, tucking her legs up to her chin. "I think that Drew's left me."
Cassie sat down as well, gracefully tucking her legs under her. Belle glanced at her. This left beyond weird, telling the ex's girlfriend her problems, but it was good to talk and if Cass was happy to listen than could Belle ask for anything more?
Cass frowned again. "Why do you say that? What happened?"
Belle couldn't help but spill out to Cassie all that had happened. Drew walking in on she and Ric having a laugh, his assumption that something had gone down, him walking away from her at the beach, his disappointed look.
"He wouldn't even let me explain." She murmured, more to her knees than to Cass.
Cass sighed. "He's not going to leave you over that. Trust me. I know."
Belle glanced at her and she smiled. "Don't think we all haven't seen how he looks at you. It's enviable. I wish Ric looked at me like that!"
Belle frowned. "Look like what?"
Cass shrugged. "Like he'd rather die than go anywhere without you."
Belle stared out to the sea. "So."
Cassie smiled. "You use those strange powers of persuasion you have. You make him listen. You don't give up. I know how well you don't give up." Her smile had a slight shade of malice in it, but Belle ignored it. She was right. If Belle knew how to do anything it was how to get her own way.
She stood up and Cass followed her. "I'll go talk to him."
Cass nodded. "Good." She pointed in the direction of the surf club. "I passed him up at the Surf Club about 10 minutes ago. He seemed to be headed home."
Belle took a few steps towards the Surf Club and then turned back to Cass. "Thanks."
Cass smiled. "It's okay." She continued as Belle opened her mouth again. "And no, I won't tell anyone we had this conversation."
Belle nodded and continued on her way. Cass hoped everything would be okay.
Drew was rifling through the fridge when there was a knock on the back door.
He glanced up from the fridge towards the slightly open door and there stood Belle.
He looked away from her and headed into the lounge room.
He heard the back door shut and assumed she'd let herself in.
When he turned back towards her she was standing in the doorway of the living room.
"We need to talk." She said. It was not a suggestion, it was an order.
Drew sat down on the lounge and looked up at her. "Yeah, okay."
He didn't sound very interested in what she had to say, and Belle frowned. "Do you even care what I have to say?" She asked.
Drew shrugged, looking at a picture on the mantelpiece rather than at her.
Belle frowned then took a seat at the table. Drew didn't look at her once.
"I was visiting Irene when Ric and Cassie came into the diner together." She stressed the 'together'. "They invited me to join them. Bribed me with choc-chip muffin."
For a second she could've sworn she saw Drew smile just a little. They both knew that Belle would live on choc-chip muffins if she could. But once Belle looked again his face was expressionless, staring out at nothing.
She continued. "Cassie wanted to talk, about a peace treaty between you, me, her and Ric. I told them I couldn't talk on behalf of you, but that it was fine with me."
She paused, looking at the table. "I assume just after that was when you walked in."
She frowned. "Cass was in the bathroom, and Ric was ranting on about that library geek William, the guy you were telling me about last week. He was enjoying his story, but all I could hear was you telling me about what you did to him. I wasn't even listening to Ric."
She sighed. "Why didn't you just come over?" She looked at him. "If I'd seen you I would've asked you to join us. I mean, I know you don't like Ric but you wouldn't've been there for him. You would've been there for me."
Drew just shrugged.
The pair sat quietly for a moment and then Belle stood up again. "I've told you what happened. If you don't believe it, that's fine. We always said, it's just about fun isn't it?" She gave him one last look and then turned away.
She didn't glance back at she left. She didn't need to to know he hadn't moved.
She was curled up on the couch, just staring into space, when she heard a knock on the front door.
Pushing herself slowly to her feet she headed over to it, pulling it open.
There stood Drew, hands in his pockets. "Can I come in?" He asked.
Belle nodded mutely, pulling the door open wider. She closed it behind him and turned to face him. He'd made himself at home on the couch. He was always doing that!
Belle covered a smile and then motioned to the kitchen. "You want a drink?"
Drew shook his head. Belle got herself one anyway, aware of his eyes on her as she re-entered the living room.
She sat down in the lounge chair nearby rather than next to him on the main couch.
Drew frowned a little at this and then cleared his throat. "Okay. I'm not a great communicator, which you know, so I'll make this quick."
Belle nodded slowly, taking a drink as she suddenly had a very dry throat.
"1 question. Do you still like Ric?" He asked.
Belle took a deep breath. "In what way?" She replied.
Drew frowned. "Yes or no."
Belle bit her lip. "Yes." Drew looked away from her. "But not like that. Not anymore."
Drew nodded. "Okay. Okay." He looked up at her. "I can live with that."
Belle put down her glass. "Is that all you came here to hear?"
Drew shook his head. "No. I want to say one thing." He scratched his bottom lip. "Okay. Look, you said we were just about having fun right?"
Belle nodded.
Drew continued. "Fighting with you isn't what I'd call fun." He paused. "But I couldn't help it. The green-eyed monster in me came out."
Belle smiled. "I noticed." She stood up and joined him on the lounge. "What Ric and I have now is harmless. You know that right?"
Drew nodded. "Yeah. I do. That was the confusing thing."
Belle grinned. "You idiot." She kissed him. "You jealous idiot."
"I don't get jealous." Drew protested.
Belle grinned and nodded knowingly. "Of course you don't."
Drew threw a pillow at her in reply.
Belle laughed. "Oh, wow, that was lame." But she threw it back and when he grabbed her she knew things were back to normal again.
Thankfully…