Thursday 23/12/2011

Lara woke up early that Thursday morning of their five day weekend and rolled out of bed and walked into her lounge room where Dean was still passed out. Lara walked into the kitchen quietly and started making them a cuppa.

After the coffee was made, she picked up the cups and headed back into the lounge room and placed one cup in front of Dean and the other next to her favorite armchair. She moved to open the curtains and windows to allow that any slight breeze that was blowing. Being Sydney and in the first month of summer, they weren't prone to the nice breeze unless you were by the beach. As soon as she opened the curtains Dean groaned and slowly sat up.

"Good morning," Lara chirped happily, curling into the chair and sipping her coffee.

"Morning, either you need a new couch or renovate your spare room back into a guest room," Dean moaned whilst picking up his coffee and taking a sip, mentioning how Lara's spare room was still a home office from when she was married to Hamish.

"Been thinking about it," She said, looking out the window as the traffic passed down her usually quiet street. "Why are you offering to help renovate it?"

"I'd be more than happy to help you," He said, leaning back into the couch and looking at her.

"Great, we can start on the details over the weekend. What's your plan for today?" She asked, taking another sip of her coffee and looking back at Dean.

"Not a lot, how about yourself?" Dean asked, setting his cup down on his knee.

"Upper Gledhill Falls. Want to come with? You'll need your swimmers thought," She said getting up out of the chair and putting her cup in the sink.

"Sounds good. I'll wait for you to be ready and we will head over to mine," He said following suit, as she padded out of the kitchen and up the hallway to her bedroom at the end. She really need to do a complete renovation of this house, it had too many reminders of her marriage to Hamish. She had taken all their photos down and burnt them when she was drunk.

It hadn't taken Lara long to get ready. She put on her bikini, a pair of shorts and a white button up shirt to cover her bikini top. She grabbed her hat and put on her sneakers and was ready and waiting for Dean by the front door with a backpack, with towels, water, sunblock and her wallet all in it.

Soon they were in Dean's ute and were headed in the direction of his house.

Dean's Place

Dean didn't take long to get ready either. He put his wallet in Lara's bag and made them some snacks to take, and soon they were on their way.

Upper Gledhill Falls-1 hour later

"This place is beautiful and quiet," Dean remarked as they pulled into the carpark.

"It's gorgeous, we still have 1km hike before we get to the swimming hole," Lara said, as they started the hike and soon enough they came out to a clearing with a waterfall and swimming hole.

"How long have you known about this place?" Dean asked as he took his hat, shoes and shirt off and put it with their things under a shady tree.

"About a year now I think. I found this place when I was having a bad night and went for a drive. Just before I served Hamish with divorce papers," Lara confided in him as she put sunblock on.

"Last one in has to clean ropes for a week," Dean said taking off towards the pool, but Lara was quicker and swan dived in.

Dean was in awe of this woman and realised he truly loved her for everything she is.

"What are you waiting for Gallagher?" She called, as she resurfaced from under the water and smiled up at him. He soon dive in and they swam and laughed for couple of hours.

3 hours later they were laying under a shady tree, reminiscing on everything.

"I think it's time to talk about the elephant in the room," Dean started rolling onto his side to look at Lara who was reading a book.

"Sure," she said, closing her book and sitting up to look at him.

"I meant what I said three months ago Lara," He started, also sitting up and crossing his legs.

"I know. And I meant what I said in my note. I love you and I want to work on us. And what our future could be," Lara said, looking at her hands as she said those three little words.

Dean looked at her surprised, he took her hands in his and made her look at him. He put a finger under her chin and placed a light kiss on her lips. Lara responded by edging closer and deepening the kiss. They soon broke apart and rested their foreheads together.

"I've loved you for a long time Lara. We will take our time and explore this, I promise." Dean said, kissing her forehead as their quiet romantic moment was ruined by a bunch of teens.

"Quiet moment over, but I love you. Can we take it slow? I've always rushed into relationships. They ended in either divorce or not wanting me," Lara said as they laid down together with Lara resting on his chest.

"I want you. I'll always want you," Dean whispered as he felt her breath evening out as she dozed off.

They weren't resting long before screams erupted from the group of teens.

"What's wrong?" Lara asked, darting up and running over to a young girl.

"Damion was jumping off that top ledge when he hit his head on the way down. He hasn't resurfaced," they young girl cried, pointing at the ledge that was out of bounds by fences and warning signs.

It wasn't long before Lara had taken her shorts and shirt off and was diving back into the pool of water.

"LARA!" Dean yelled, running to the edge and frantically looking around for her.

"There she is! She has Damion!" A teen boy yelled as Dean quickly dived in and swam to a struggling Lara and assisted her to bring him back to the edge. Soon they had him up on the edge and performing CPR as he wasn't breathing and there was no pulse.

"Call an ambulance!" Dean yelled between rescue breaths as Lara did chest compressions.

Soon enough ambulance, fire and rescue and news crews showed up to extract the boy who had successfully been revived. They soon had footage of Dean and Lara performing a handover to the ambulance and interviewing the young crowd of teenagers.

Dean and Lara had soon dried off and were gathering their stuff to head back home

Dean's place-later that evening

"You okay?" Dean asked Lara as they settled down on the couch after such and adventurous day.

"Just tired after today, glad to be here with you though," Lara said cuddling up to him as someone knocked on the door.

"Dean!" Chase and Lachie yelled as the team piled in through his front door. "Oh, oops."

"Yeah, oopsies." Lachie laughed as they all found a spot to sit in Dean's lounge room

"That's alright Chasie, just barge on in," Dean said, but the two didn't shuffle from the position they were in.

"Bout time you two. As long as it doesn't affect your work," Michelle said, picking up Dean's remote and flicking to the new from earlier today of Lara diving into the water that was filmed by a bystander. "Well done you two."

"It was all Lara, if I'm honest," Dean said, as they team lounge around sipping on beers that they had brought.

A few hours later and the team slowly dwindled to just the Gallagher brothers and Lara. "It's about time brother, welcome to the family Lara, officially anyway," Lachie said as Chasie started to snoring softly from the other couch. "Is Chase alright to stay here the night? He is too heavy to carry up the stairs at our condo."

"That's all good, he can stay there. He looks pretty comfy, you head home and we will look after him for the night," Dean said as they all got up off the couch and walked Lachie to the front door.

"Good night guys," Lachie said hugging Lara and shaking Dean's hand before pulling him into a brotherly hug.

"Night Lach," they said simultaneously before locking the screen and wooden doors, making sure Chase had a blanket and turning the lights out before heading towards Dean's room.

Oh, so they're together now.

Well that will just have to change

I want her back. I always get what I want

He drove away, tonight was not his night.