Dupe had a bag packed and was sat in a truck driving it over rutted roads on his way over to Mara to begin his sabotage. He was only going to start small, take down a few fences initially making it look innocent not only to Danny but also so he had deniability to Alice. He didn't want her finding out he had broken his promise so soon. He cut the engine on the machine as he approached the back entrance of Mara. He had to cut the lock off the chain, but he brought another one to replace it with. If they checked the land they would see his tire tracks but there wasn't a lot he could do about that! This was the beauty of living here for the last sixty years; he knew ways onto Mara that they'd never find without him! There was this one ingenious way, it was a tunnel of sorts, one end was in a rock formation at Leopards Den and the other end was at the lion pen at Mara…hence the reason it was never used. He really should block that thing off eventually; then again you need a map just to find it! The rocks on his side were on a particularly barren area of land which was barely visited.
As he walked he took a long drink of his water. How he wished it was whisky, but he didn't need to be getting lost and ending up falling asleep or worse somewhere he shouldn't! He needed to keep a clear head he had no idea what kind of changes this Danny may have made, he might dislike the man and question his sanity for letting someone like Alice get away but the man was good at what he did.
He reached the fences without incident and pulled the wire cutters from his back pack, snipped at one column then walked down a ways and cut again, one sharp yank from his gloved hands and it began to tumble down like a row of dominos. He wiped the sweat from his brow, the night being humid. As he did he looked into the distance and could see lights burning... or maybe it was his imagination, guilt beginning to gnaw at him. He reminded himself once again that he was doing this for Alice, so she could keep her boy with her. He liked Vanessa and to be honest if Danny hadn't hurt a woman he loved like a daughter had had no doubt that he and the man would have become close friends. Alice just lost her head around him, typical woman! Before he would never have imagined that a man could affect her like that! It wasn't that she wasn't capable of love, she had always seemed much too level headed before. Now he knew where she got that trait of level headedness from. That was the whole reason he steered clear of love after losing his first wife Elizabeth. He'd loved her beyond reason, beyond sense, beyond everything and losing her had sent him inside a dark place inside himself. It had very nearly destroyed him and would have if he had let it. He and Alice were more alike than she gave them credit for; both of them had sealed off their heart from being hurt again. Caroline had saved him from the lonely existence he had exiled himself to….Alice just needed a strong steady man who could pull her out of it too, but who? He again looked at the lights burning in the distance then shook his head. He'd give up drinking before he allowed that man near Alice again. Then he walked on into the distance to find the impala he knew were hiding inside, the giraffes would be having a visitor tonight.
Danny checked his watch after he looked outside of his surgery window and saw the area shrouded in darkness. He could swear he had just looked outside 10 minutes ago and the sun was blazing. Squinting at his watch he saw that it read 11:26. He scrubbed his face tiredly and stood up from the table before him scattering the lists. Yawning his stretched his cramped muscles and walked around. He'd been cooped up in this god forsaken office for hours trying to make sense of decade's worth of paperwork. There had been no semblance of order things from 20 years ago mixed in with things from 2 years ago. He didn't become a vet to sit and deal with paper! He wanted to save animals! The word animals reminded him that he had to do an animal census as they hadn't done one in forever, or there wasn't any paperwork or anything of the system to tell him one had been done recently. He also had to get to an auction too because he needed some animals to balance out the food chain. Once again rubbing his eyes tiredly. He wasn't getting paid enough that's for sure! How had Vanessa let this slide for so long? He heard a soft knock and saw Evan stood in the doorway in his pyjamas.
"Hey son…." Saw a bleak look in his blue eyes. "You ok?"
Evan nodded and pushed his hands on the pockets of his pj bottoms, "Couldn't sleep." He murmured.
"Want some company?" Danny offered.
Evan shrugged, "Dunno. I was just walking around the land, thinking of everything. Mum, the car crash, the people who caused it." Evan swallowed. "We never found out if the kid in the other car was ok."
"I'm sure they were." Danny assured. "I can find out if you want."
Evan shrugged again and his eyes filled with tears. Danny went to him and wrapped his arms around the boy he had been caring for since he was a young child.
"I miss her Danny I want her here with me."
Danny couldn't explain to him that he had the exact same thought himself countless times. He rubbed Evans hair gently and held him as he got this out of his system. His trembling shoulders began to subside and Evan took a step back and wiped his eyes with his blue sleeve, "I'm sor…."
Danny waved him off, "It's what I'm here for."
Evan swallowed and nodded, "Are you going up to the house?" swiftly changing the subject.
Danny sighed, "Yeah, I'm starting to feel like I'm making a breakthrough, thankfully. I still have a to do list as long as my arm though. I was going to see if you fancied a trip to the animal auction in a few days."
"You'll have to see Dupe." He replied offhand.
"Dupe?" he asked confused. "Leopards Den Dupe? Why?"
"I'm guessing you haven't checked your voicemail yet then." Evan replied.
Danny pulled out his phone and saw the battery was flat, "I'll say no."
"I saw Dupe and Alice at town. I mentioned I was bored and Dupe offered to train me as a tracker."
Danny frowned, "Why?"
Evan shrugged, "He said he wants a protégé." He noticed Danny's unsure expression, "Are you alright with this?"
"I guess the real question is whether or not you want to do it." he was a man now, Danny couldn't tell him what to do for the rest of his life.
Evan nodded slowly, "Dupe took me out yesterday and I enjoyed it. I mean he needs to talk to you as I need to be able to use a gun while I'm out there he offered to train me on how to use one safely!" he was quick to add.
"I don't know if I want you using a gun." Danny murmured, he wasn't that confident so he didn't know how a teenager would handle it….
Evan rolled his eyes, "You look just like Alice did when he suggested it." He moaned. "How am I supposed to learn?"
"Alice was there?"
"Yeah, they were both a town. The look on her face when he asked for two gun…." He sighed.
Danny nodded and gestured for Evan to follow him out of the surgery. The night was warm, the moon glowed bright illuminating their path.
"But if you want me at the auction I can ring Dupe." Evan told him.
Danny shook his head, "No it's fine. If you want to come you are more than welcome but if you would rather be tracking that's ok."
"I've got to be up and at Leopards Den at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Dupe said he doesn't need anything specific tracked but he said the tracks will be the freshest then and it's the best time for me to learn how to identify them."
Danny smiled, "He'll have you a master tracker in no time."
"You sure you don't mind?" Evans voice full of uncertainty.
Danny smiled at him and held the door open for him to enter their living area, "Are you kidding? I'm just happy you are settling. If you ever need me to come pick you up just text me yeah. I want to make sure we still have time together, I am still you dad even though you're growing up much too fast!"
"Won't me being there affect the Thomas thing?"
Danny shook his head, "I shouldn't think so. That will be moving along soon anyway."
"You're still gonna let Alice see him right?" Evan asked as they headed for their rooms.
"Of course! I just want him here with me."
"So you still feel the same. I thought after some time passed you might feel differently, change your mind..."
Danny ruffled his hair, "It's a long complicated story." everything with him and Alice was always complicated. "Don't you worry."
Evan's brow was furrowed, "I just don't want you and Alice to be like mum and dad used to be. Remember how stressed out mum used to get when dad got in a mood with her and threatened to go for sole custody of us. I've only met Alice once and I can tell she is really nice." They reached Evans bedroom. "Anyway, goodnight Danny."
"Goodnight son." He murmured his mind on Sarah when Simon used to threaten her with custody issues. He sighed now thinking of Alice, how he didn't want to cause her any more hurt. Without thinking he found himself dialling a number.
Alice lay in bed in her room too wired to sleep, put simply she was stressed out! She had received a letter she hadn't told anyone about; it was preliminary hearing for her custody battle with Danny. She wasn't trying to kid herself, she knew there was a real danger of her losing Thomas again and the thought was tearing her apart. She couldn't have him gone again, to have him back had been unbelievable. Yes he was being a bit contentious right now but that would die out eventually…. She closed her eyes trying hard not to think about where this situation may go. Then there was Rosie, her case was still active, what if they decided she was unfit for Thomas and decided the same for Rosie. She twisted her face and pounded her fist off the mattress. What a mess! Life had been so simple once upon a time. Now here she was at stupid o clock trying to sleep but unable to.
On her bedside cabinet her phone began to vibrate and flash insistently, she picked it up and didn't recognise the number on the display. She shook her head and sat up, "I don't do midnight call outs anymore." she muttered intent upon ignoring the call. "I'm a mum, I have responsibilities!" she glanced down again ready to slide the curser to ignore...but for some reason she decided to connect the call. "Hello this is Alice Collins."
"Hi Alice, its Danny." The other person replied.
When she heard his voice her heart jumped in her chest. "You're not supposed to be talking to me." She sighed suddenly too tired argue or even talk. She couldn't be bothered with the game playing! "We're doing this properly."
"I know I just called about Evan. The tracking stuff."
She rubbed her forehead, "I don't have anything to do with that you'll have to speak with Dupe."
"Ok I will." He noted that she didn't sound well, at the very least she sounded tired.
For the next few moments neither spoke and an awkward silence began to descend.
"How is everything, Thomas?" he asked softly.
"Good." She said curtly. "He's settling well at school. We are taking it a day at a time seeing as he might not be here too long….." she trailed off an accusation in her tone.
Danny bit his tongue. "Have you got a contact number for Dupe so I can speak to him about Thomas, I tried to land line but it said it had been disconnected." That was a lie, he didn't want her knowing her had just wanted to speak to her, try to mend bridges, obviously impossible!
"Vanessa has all the numbers you'll need in her address book."
This was almost painful he thought. He had to get off this phone, she obviously had the same thought because Alice bid him a goodbye and disconnected the call.
Alice flopped her head back down onto her pillow closing her eyes. She lay there in silence for what felt like forever letting her mind drift, half dozing. It didn't last long until losing Thomas and Rosie drifted back into her mind and she opened her eyes sighing. Picked up her phone and looked at her screensaver. It was a picture of both of the kids together. Thomas was adamant when he came here that she wasn't to take any pictures of him so she'd had to be inventive. On the picture the kids were in the pool and they hadn't known she was there. She'd spotted them and snapped a quick picture. Thomas had been laughing at something Rosie had said. As she looked at the picture she couldn't help but recognise the likeness to his father, Danny was right there in his eyes, his smile….and she was keeping them apart. All those years ago when they first married they hadn't dreamed they'd end up here. It wasn't supposed to be like this. It used to be him and her against the world. How was it that they ended up enemies? Impulsively she called the number he had rang from. As soon as she heard his voice she knew it was a bad idea.
"Hello?" he replied curtly. His voice was rough, but it wasn't from sleep it was something else, something emotional.
"Danny?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah!" he barked.
"It's Alice I just….I wondered if you wanted some time with Thomas. You could see him when you bring Evan or pick him up."
For a moment all she could hear was breathing on the other end of the phone. "What about solicitors?"
"He's your son too, you need time. A proper meeting. A chance to talk."
"Oh so you are allowing me to see him now then? Why thank you." Sarcasm thick in his tone.
Alice blew out an angry breath, "I knew this was a bad idea! I rang to ask if you wanted to see him because I wanted us to be amicable! It occurred to me that here I was having a lot of time with Thomas and you were having none and it wasn't fair. Regardless of what you thought I was going to get in contact with you in the UK I'd never have kept him from you deliberately I was just trying to find the right time! Yes I went the wrong way about it but it's not like you haven't made mistakes either! Let's face it all WE were was one massive mistake but we share a child and I'm trying to be an adult about this. Trying to teach him that no good comes from standing on opposite sides when you need to work together! It doesn't matter anyway. Don't bother; I'll see you in court!"
"Al…" he heard a click and beep resounded in his ear indicating she had disconnected. Why the hell did he have to say that? It wasn't her fault he had ventured into memories he didn't like to visit. After speaking to her he began thinking about Thomas and Sarah, about losing both of them, how he'd lost Alice too and it occurred to him that everything good thing he had in his life seemed to eventually go bad. It didn't matter what he did he eventually lost everything he loved. Then Alice called and all he could think about was how she left him after they lost their son and all the pain he was feeling came spewing out. He had heard her tone there. She was genuinely bothered that he and Thomas weren't having any time. He sighed. He had to go see her, apologise. She was right regardless of what was happening now later they had to find a way to parent together it was no good Thomas seeing them as a fragmented pair. They had to show him that they were a united front.
He opened a text and quickly apologised. She didn't reply and he had a feeling she was ignoring him. He couldn't really blame her he had acted like an ass. He could only hope that they could get passed it.
A/N definately getting better at updating, it has only been just over a week :) too nothing really happened in this one except Dupe with his revenge and Danny finally seeing that they need to work together. Next one is better, its a turning point in some ways. Hope you enjoyed x