I love to read fanfiction about my favourite shows. I hope some other people write for RFDS. One more episode to go, then the second season seems very far away.

This is my attempt to get inside Eliza's head during the most recent episode, Season 1 episode 7. Obviously my invented backstory might prove to be completely false, but it seems plausible with what we've got so far.

Everything recognisable belongs to Endemol Shine Australia & their team. I'm just playing for my own amusement.

-RFDS-

Eliza lay her head back on Pete's shoulder and stared at the ceiling of his ute. She sighed and tried to let the tension slip away. It was comforting, being here with Pete. There was so much uncertainty, but also so much acceptance. How did he do that?

She felt his body relax beneath her and let her mind wander. Six months ago, her life had been perfectly ordered. Her husband, her son, her job: all her ducks in a row. Three months ago, she had forced it to take on a new kind of order as she and Henry fled to this wilderness. But now, her worlds were colliding and she didn't know which way to turn.

As perfect as her life and career might look to the outsider, she'd been in turmoil before. She'd been in her last year of medical school when she found out she was pregnant with Henry. So many dreams and plans, and none of them seemed compatible with motherhood. But she wanted to have the baby, and Ed had proposed. Before she knew it, they were a family. He'd finished his Foundation Programme while she immersed herself in new motherhood, then he'd generously taken a break while she did hers.

For years, life was all work and study and Henry and logistics. It seemed that they had it all. She loved Ed, without question. It was a love of familiarity, fondness and overwhelming gratitude that he'd enabled her to be a mother and a doctor at the same time. But over the years, without her even noticing, comfort and stability became habit. They lost touch with each other, even as they shared the same bed.

Until the day when the world came crashing down, and she forced herself to look at their relationship with more objective eyes. And she saw... emptiness. She knew that she should work to overcome her hurt, to resurrect her marriage. But the bonds that had held them together in everyday life weren't quite strong enough to pull her back in a crisis.

In her confusion, she'd looked for ways to escape. Her goal had been to get away from that hospital, to protect herself from Ed's everyday presence and from the whispers that seemed to follow her wherever she went. She'd had no intention of moving the other side of the world. When her spur-of-the-moment application to the RFDS returned an offer, she could hardly believe her eyes. She almost declined straight away. Then the decision wheel started to spin. London, Australia, London, Australia… When it stopped, she fled to the other side of the world.

She hadn't meant to flee straight into the arms of the first man she stood under the stars with. It had definitely been a mistake to sleep with Pete on the day they met, but she could forgive herself on the grounds of being so completely out of her depth in this new life. It wasn't something that needed to be resolved, just one jet-lagged night with a stranger.

Except that he wasn't a stranger whom she could simple forget. They had to work together every day, in excruciatingly close proximity. The awkwardness was almost unbearable. What were they to each other? Just colleagues. Barely acquaintances. But also more. And less. Hazy and undefined.

As they got used to each other, things had gradually gotten easier. They had trained themselves to forget. But the evening she'd confessed to Leonie, something had shifted. That, she realised, was when she'd really let herself enjoy his company, and feel that he enjoyed hers too. His unique combination of brusqueness and gentleness with their patients tugged at her heartstrings. The long plane flights had been brighter because they'd endured them together. The evenings at the pub become her salve, whatever their days had been, and they let go of the tension together. There was a hint of expectation of something more, but though they both felt it, both were willing to let it lie. Gradually, day by day, her heart had grown towards his in a different way. He had become her best friend.

She wondered if she would have been content to leave it at that. If he hadn't made his comment about her decision wheel stopping where it did, would she have made the next move on her own? Maybe. Probably. Eventually. But hearing that he was glad she was there melted her inside.

That was the difference, she realised. She and Pete weren't held together by habit or logic or a child. They were friends, two people who genuinely liked each other, and then found that they fit together as more than friends. Even with Ed's imminent arrival hanging over their heads, they could just enjoy being together. It was the sort of relationship she'd never realised she didn't have.

Yet she did have a child with Ed, and a long history. And he was here, presumably wanting her back. Or at least expecting her to talk to him. She couldn't just sit here in Pete's car all night, as much as she might want to. Her reality was a mess, and there was no one else to tidy it up for her. She would have to pull herself from his comfortable arms and go inside.