Chapter 10

Tess sighed as she covered her mouth and nose with her sweater. From the day Claire and Alex had left everything had turned out wrong on Drover's. On the first day, Jodi had been "fixing" the leaking roof. The second day Oscar and Phoenix had broken trough the fence so they had spend all afternoon catching them. And now, on Tess' third day as the "boss", Stevie had gone to the cattle to return with the news several sheep had been found dead.

'Any ideas?' she asked Dave standing beside her. He shook his head.

'Not yet. It could be an infection, but I'm not sure. Gotta see the test results first.'

She sighed. 'Good. So when Claire returns she'll find a leak in the roof in her bedroom, upset horses, broken fences and dead cattle.' She slammed the gate in anger and got back on Oscar. 'She'll kill me…'

'Maybe she won't,' Stevie tried to cheer her up. 'The last weeks she hasn't been her… normal Clairerish self.'

'Yeah, but that's because she was preparing her wedding.' She sighed. 'I think I'd totally freak out if I would.'

'Yeah, me too. But maybe she'll still be a little freaked out when she returns.'

'Maybe, but she'll turn back to normal if she sees this mess.' She got off Oscar and went inside. 'Will you take care of him, Steeves? The phone's ringing, maybe its Claire to tell me where Alex has taken her.'

Stevie smiled as she led the horses back to their stable. 'I think she's having a good freaking out now. Come on, Oscar.'

'Drover's Run, Tess speaking?'

'Hey, Tess! How's Drover's doing?'

'Oh, come on Claire, where are you?' She heard laughter at the other side of the line, followed by her sister trying to get rid of Alex.

'Tess, still there?'

'Yeah, but don't make me wait, where are you?'

'Very far away,' Claire teased her. 'But all right, I'm at the airport in Brisbane.'

'What, you're kidding me.'

'I'm not.'

'Wow, Claire! That's amazing!'

'But how's it going on Drover's? No burnt stables?'

'Well, I…'

'Do I wanna know?'

'Probably not.'

'What's it?'

'Well, it's just that Jodi has broken the roof in your room, Phoenix and Oscar broke the fence and the sheep are dying of some unknown disease. But it's no big deal,' she chattered, hoping Claire wouldn't notice it was a big deal.

'Alright. So I'll be blessed if the house's still standing when I come home?'

Tess bit her lip. 'Kinda. But I'll make it right, I'll… fix it,' she promised not very believable. But Claire didn't seem to make a big deal out of it. Maybe she had freaked out.

'Well, alright. I'll see when I come home. But I'll hang up on you now, this is a very expensive call.'

'Right. Well, make sure you'll have a good time, then.'

'Sure. I'll call you again in the weekend, right?'

'Right. Bye, Claire.'

'Bye.'

'So, has she freaked out?' Stevie stood in the kitchen, leaning on the wall, having a beer.

Tess smiled. 'Absolutely. He's taken her to Brisbane, the big idiot.'

Stevie smiled significantly, trying to throw her empty bottle into the wastebasket but missed. Pieces of glass dispersed on the floor but Tess didn't mind.

'You knew that!' she called indignant. Stevie grinned at her.

'But… how?' Tess asked her, surprised Stevie hadn't told her.

'He told me,' Stevie answered simply. 'But let's go, we've got work to do.' She walked out of the kitchen without giving the crashed bottle a look. Tess sighed and made a move to clean up the mess, but decided against it. In the end Claire wasn't there to tell her to remove it. So she made a face to the glass and walked out.

Meanwhile Jodi had climbed up the roof again. She had told herself she'd fix it this time, but it didn't turn out better than last time. She threw out a frustrated "ouch!" when she hit herself on her fingers for the third time in five minutes.

'Need a hand, Jode?'

She closed her eyes. It was the only thing she could do to stop herself from shouting. If there was only one person she didn't want to get a hand from at this moment, it'd be Craig.

'No, I'm fine, thank you,' she stated. She realised she was still angry with him for not giving her the letters Alberto sent her while he was in Italy, tough she had terribly stuffed up with the whole Alberto-thing. But he seemed to be sure to have a chance to get her back, and he wouldn't leave her alone.

'So why are you still standing there?'

'I… I just…' He looked at her almost pitiful. Almost.

'Yeah, you just wanted to leave. Bye Craig,' she interrupted him as innocent as possible before turning her back at him.

'Jode,' he began begging. 'I've told you I'm sorry. Why can't you just forgive me?'

'Craig, I said you just wanted to leave. If I say you just wanted to leave, I mean 'piss off'!'

'But Jodi, I..'

'Listen to me Craig,' she told him, getting really angry now. She knew there might be a chance she was not reasonable, but she couldn't help it she couldn't stand him anymore. 'You won't get me back. So just leave me alone, alr…'

Before she got the chance to finish her sentence the roof started cracking and a very short moment later she thudded down on Claire's bed.

Tess had started following Stevie to check on the sheep when a loud noise filled up the place. It sounded like something caused by Alex, but he wasn't here. It sounded like cracking, followed by the screaming of Jodi and a loud thud.

'What the bloody hell was that?' Stevie exclaimed, running back to the house.

'It sounded like Jodi. And she was fixing the…'

'Roof,' Stevie finished Tess' sentence. They had reached the place Jodi had been working and found Craig standing on the ladder, staring at the place where Jodi had been standing a few seconds ago.

'Oh my God, Craig, don't tell me…' Tess exclaimed, pulling him off the ladder and climbing up herself. She looked down through what once was the roof and found Jodi lying on Claire's bed, surrounded by wood and dust.

'Jodi, are you alright?'

'Yeah, I'm fine, Tess,' she answered, shaking the dust out of her hair. 'But the roof… isn't.'

'What happened?'

'Well, I think the roof has just come down.'

'What have you done, Jodi, what where you thinking?' Tess shouted desperately. 'What will I tell Claire?'

'Well, you'll tell her she and Alex from now will sleep under a canvas,' Stevie joked. Nobody laughed.

'Problems, ladies?'

A trembling went trough her stomach when she recognized Nick's voice. She shook her head. She didn't have time to be in love with him this week. She sighed.

'Kinda. Jodi has just made the roof come down, so now I better make up my will before Claire comes home.'

Nick smiled, climbed up the ladder and but his lip when he saw the damage.

'It'll be fine,' he said, when seeing the desperate look on Tess' face. It didn't sound very believable, but it seemed to reassure her a little bit.

'I'll help ya. I don't think Alex likes to sleep here without a roof.'

Claire stood in the bathroom and threw up in the washbasin. She sighed and wondered if she'd ever felt so miserable before, and stopped moving instantly as she realised she had. She walked out of the bathroom, crossed the suite slowly not to wake Alex and kept still at Charlotte's bed. Tess had offered to look after her for the week their honeymoon would last, but Claire hadn't wanted her to. She just needed to have her baby with her.

'Claire, are you alright?'

'I'm fine,' she called as she started running back to the bathroom again, waking Charlotte. Alex followed her and rubbed her back as she bowed over the washbasin again.

'Hey, are you sure?'

'Yeah,' she sighed as she rose from the washbasin. 'I'm just throwing up all the time and I don't think it's the food to blame.'