A/N RECAP –A/N Danny and Alice were married when they were kids when Alice unexpectedly got pregnant they seemed to make it work until (due to circumstances out of their control) their son was taken away and adopted to another family. although a very hard decision they decided to leave him their which culminated in their divorce and going their seperate ways.

they met up 12 years later as Danny visited LD for a holiday and found that the old attraction still simmered under the surface but ignored it he went home. a year later Alice got a call from a social worker in England telling her that Thomas' birth parents were dead and she had the chance to adopt him if she so wished.

We then go back to find out that Danny's finance Sarah had just passed away and he had been in a fog which is why no one managed to get in contact until his old social worker called in and told him that Alice had custody of Thomas. He then made his way over to South Africa and decided to go see Alice they argued and eventually he decided to relocate with his 2 step children and go for permament custody of Thomas.

Meanwhile Danny and Alice son Thomas is living at leopards den, he has a day off school and decided to go exploring with an old map he found. He fund an old cave followed it through to the end and ended up at a dangerous area at Mara Alice has figured out he has gone and is currently following him with Dupe.

"What were you thinking Dupe!" Alice practically screaming running full speed at the rocks before her. She had shouted this question what felt like a hundred times fear making her heart pound. "Why wasn't I told about this?"

"Alice, please calm down." Dupe panting struggling to keep up with her. "It took me years to find the opening!"

Alice came skidding to a stop and began scanning the floor around the rock formation.

"Look at his tracks he was heading straight for it!" she rubbed her head. "Could he have found some sort of map?" she demanded.

"No, not a chance..." at least he hoped. That hope swiftly died when he saw the tracks end abruptly directly below the opening of the cavern. Dupe knelt down and saw lots of small disturbed stones on the dusty ground. He looked up at Alice and she could see the fear within their depths, "Alice…" and he pointed up to a small but noticeable gap….if you knew what you were looking for.

Alice paled then flushed bright red, "What were you thinking!" she roared her voice on the verge of hysteria. "Evan wait here!" she told him voice low and dangerous, "Dupe, come on!"

"I want…." Evan began taking a step towards her.

"No on else needs to be in any more danger, while you are here you are my responsibility so I want you to stay here where you are safe!" she hoisted her gun on her shoulder and began to climb up. Her feet at times scrambling for traction. In no time she had reached the cavern. After squeezing through the opening she pulled out a torch and scanned it across the floor hoping that she found no more tracks, it didn't take long for muddy footprints to indicate where he was headed. "Oh no!" she whispered. "THOMAS!" and she broke out into a dead run.

"ALICE!" Dupe called following her.

Thomas' breathing was laboured as he looked at the lions sunning themselves in the distance. His heart was pounding so hard he thought it was about to burst from his chest. He knew any moment now one of them was going to hear it beating look across and he was done for! "Ok ok" he told himself softly. "What do I do?" closed his eyes a moment hoping something came to him. He was so scared he couldn't even think!

"Calm down!" he told himself sternly, panicking wasn't going to get him out of this! All I need to do is back away, slowly and quietly, he told himself. They haven't even noticed me yet. If I'm careful I'll get out of this head back to the cave and never decide to go exploring again! If he got out of this he was never leaving his bloody room again! He was an idiot! He had no radio, why hadn't be brought a bloody radio? Alice had told him to always carry one in case he got in trouble. Well he was in trouble now! Why were adults always right?

Centering himself he took a tentative step backwards. The pack seemed engaged in what they were doing, thankfully paying him no notice...that is until he stepped on a large stone and skidded. He stumbled back and landed with a hard thud, the breath rushing from in with an oomph. As he sat up and he saw three pairs of yellow eyes trained on him. The lioness, or he assumed it was, lifted her head sniffed the air and he swore he saw her smile as she assumed her hunting posture, he body lithe and graceful as she crouched low. Thomas feet began skidding across the floor trying to get traction. He pushed himself to his feet unable to breathe…..

"You should have told me Dupe!" Alice yelled as she ran through the musty dark passage. "How many of these don't I know about?"

"None, look I didn't know that one day there would be kids living here exploring. I'm sorry!" he shouted barely able to breathe he was running so fast trying to keep up with her.

Alice burst into the cavern and looked around. Dupe came to a stop behind her bent double panting.

"Where's the exit?" she asked.

"It used….to be….over…...there." he pointed to the right, "Used to….be a lot…..bigger too."

Alice saw the tiniest crack of light and immediately moved towards it, noted that the opening was barely big enough for a teenager to fit through. Good thing she had always been small! She dropped her gun, her pack and forced her body through. As soon as she had crawled through she was scrambling to her feet, in seconds she found his tracks and broke out into a run in the direction that Thomas was heading.

Dupe, who was unable to fit himself through the small opening saw Alice had left everything behind, her radio, her pack, her gun….. "ALICE!" he shouted.

Alice, however, didn't hear him. She was too focussed on saving her son. If he had ran into a pack of lions….what if she was already too late. Bile filled her stomach at the thought. She felt like she had been running for miles when she finally found Thomas ahead of her. Her smile of relief was short lived when she saw a lioness getting ready to run at him. Instinctively she reached for the gun she usually carried on her shoulder, found her hand empty, her stomach plummeted when she remembered running from the cave, leaving her gun there. She swore and without thinking ran at him full speed, she might have yelled something at him, she didn't know.

Her body barrelled into his knocking him out of the way, at that moment she felt another body plough into hers from behind this time, this one more muscular and covered in fur.

"RUN! TREES!" she screamed as her body hit the floor with an oomph. Claws embedded into her back and she was being crushed by a large heavy body. Alice couldn't withhold a gasp of pain and was anticipating sharp teeth tearing into her any moment now. She closed her eyes tight and thought of Thomas….

Danny walked through Mara's lion enclosure gun held securely in hand scanning in the distance firstly for lions and secondly for any signs of intruders or damage. He wasn't happy. Someone was playing funny buggers with the fences here, they were being cut or in some areas torn down altogether. Machinery was being sabotaged. There was sugar in some of the trucks petrol tanks, the windows egged. His to do list which had been gradually getting smaller was suddenly through the roof. He was constantly having to check on things that didn't need to be checked because of the saboteur. The lion pens were one of the most important things to be checked. God knows they didn't need the lions getting out and terrorising the guests! So far so good, they hadn't been touched, yet!

He wasn't stupid, he knew who was doing this, who else knew exactly which areas to avoid? Alice. And if he could prove it the first thing he would be doing was to be going to the police! As it was he only had his suspicions which meant very little to anyone. He had already spoke to Vanessa and she was adamant that Alice wouldn't do this, she knew her, they'd been friends and worked together for years. All that might be true, but how did she know how Alice would react to having her ex husband around! They had also never been locked in a custody battle before. Vanessa had been especially vehement and deep down he knew that this wasn't Alice's style...but there was someone else. Du Plessis. And Alice had to know which made it twice as bad. If you were going to do something like this at least have the spine to…..he scanned the dusty ground and saw two sets of footprints. He gritted his teeth. If they were messing around in the lion pens this was the final straw! A bit of vandalism was relatively harmless but once you involved the not only the animals but the dangerous ones which can endanger peoples safety it was going too far!

He followed the tracks quickly gun raised when people came into view behind a bush. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, he saw Alice running towards Thomas who was rooted to the spot staring at a pride of lions.

She ploughed into him pushing him out of the way. The lioness who was trying to his son hit Alice and was over her ready to take a bite out of her. He didn't think, just raised his gun and fired twice into the sky. The animals all ran, including the one who was pinning Alice to the ground. Danny lowered his gun and ran over to her, saw her lain in the stomach. Eyes closed. He knelt down and put his hand to her neck feeling for a pulse. Cautious footsteps approached.

"She ok?" a young male voice asked quivering slightly.

He looked up to see Thomas looking down at Alice arms wrapped around his stomach, genuine fear on his face. Danny focussed back on Alice exhaled when he found her pulse strong. In the next moment her eyes popped open, "Thomas?" she croaked voice scratchy. Her eyes darted around almost wildly. "Thomas!" she repeated a second after the first request, voice firmer than before. She pushed Danny's hands away and sat up. Her eyes found her son and she scrambled to her feet, forgetting Danny was there, and wrapped her arms around her son tightly.

Thomas had no idea how to react and was about to push her away when he smelled a familiar scent that was sort of unfamiliar at the same time. He felt de ja vu, something pulling at the edge of his subconscious. A gentle hand on his head arms around him holding him so tight. He found his own arms circling her and he patted her back awkwardly. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, a strange sort of peace beginning to fall over him, until Danny ruined it.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" Danny barked.

Alice pulled back and looked at Thomas' face intently searching for injuries. She was so close Thomas could see the silver flecks in her eyes. "Let me get Thomas home and I'll call you."

"NO!" Danny demanded, "What were you thinking bringing him to the lion enclosure!"

Alice's whole body seemed to freeze, her eyes darkened and they zeroed in Danny.

"As a vet you should know the dangers….."

"I'm very aware of the dangers Danny. I would never put my son in…."

"Our son..." he corrected, "And it looks like you did put him in danger!"

"I would never endanger my son!" she shouted back.

"Well that's obviously not true. I know you have been sabotaging this place Alice. But the lions! Using Thomas…." he trailed off disgusted.

Alice was really angry now, she was almost shaking with the force of it. Thomas was meanwhile looking between them, irritated with Danny for shouting at Alice.

"My solicitor will love hearing this!" Danny added.

"Alice is nothing to do with this!" Thomas shouted at Danny, finally at the end of his tether. He looked at Alice then and saw the back of her khaki coloured blouse was slowly being soaked with blood. "Alice, you're bleeding…." Thomas added softly.

She touched her back and brought her hand away and saw it was a dark red colour. It was then she began to feel the pain. "I'm fine." she told him and gave him a small smile, "Its just a scratch." glared at Danny. "I'm going home to get cleaned up. But just to make things clear for you, its not me sabotaging Mara! No matter whatever the outcome in court we need to stay civil for our son! I will call you later!" and with that she took Thomas by the arm directing him in the direction of the secret passage.

"Where are you going?" he asked. "The exit is…."

"We'll talk later." Alice threw back at him and carried on walking.

A/N not gonna lie struggling to write this. at the moment this could be my first story without a happy ending :/ i am going to finish it though! I am determined to do that!