After getting information from Caroline that no Dupe wasn't home yet and he wasn't answering the radio she snagged the last radio and decided to venture into the bush with Danny. Nomsa and Caroline had agreed to take Rosie to Mara for an unscheduled sleepover with Liv. To be honest that was more for Liv than anyone, she was worried sick about her brother and both she and Danny hoped that Rosie may be able to distract her until he was found. They were currently sat in a truck as dusk was starting to fall. Night was coming thick and fast, they had torches but chances were when night did finally fall it was unlikely they would find them until morning. She was gonna kill Dupe! If he really was ok….

Danny sat looking left and right periodically, "Does this happen often?" Danny asked unable to hide the trace of fear in his vice.

"Less often then you might think." she told him. "Being careless around here isn't clever so it gets drilled into your head very soon." she sighed looking up seeing it was slowly growing darker. She stifled a curse and carried on. "I know you are worried about Evan but don't, this does happen occasionally and if I was going to be lost in the bush with anyone it would be Dupe. I think the only reason he lives in the house is the water facilities." she shot a smile at him.

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow in question, "Really?"

"Don't get me wrong that man could find trouble in an empty locked room with no windows or doors but he's been traipsing around here since he was a kid. He knows this place better than the back of his hand! He probably just didn't charge the radio or forgot it, it happens…." she trailed off knowing Dupe would never let that happen, he was stickler for bush safety.

Danny nodded, knowing she was far more worried than she was willing to admit to him.

"I've lost count of the amount of times I've got lost or turned around." she murmured, "Do you want to get the torch from under the seat, it's really getting dark."

Danny began rooting around under the seat as the truck crawled along the dirt path.

"I think I'll head for Elizabeths point. Its the first rule of thumb, if you break down, if it gets dark, if you are stranded, anything head there, its our way of knowing if someone is hurt or just had an issue with a truck."

His head appeared with the torch and she pointed in the direction of the large hut.

"There it is." she told him, at the jutting roof in the distance, "Cant miss it."

They lapsed into silence, Alice felt her spirits lower when night fell properly and they were surrounded by shadows.

"How are you feeling after everything that happened with Derek?" Danny asked gently.

"Sore." she deadpanned then shook her head, "I'm alright." the automatic reply.

"You look tired."

"Thanks, just what every girl wants to hear." she drawled.

"Hey, you look…." he stopped abruptly, "Fine." he finished.

"Just tired huh?"

He nodded, mute.

Alice glanced at him, made the mistake of looking in his eyes. They were wide and green and full of concern, it seemed to break through something she hadn't known she held inside. "Thankfully he doesn't hit half as hard as he used to." ended with a resigned sigh.

He frowned and looked at her intensely, "History isn't repeating itself." he promised. "I won't let. We have our son back, we have Rosie and thats how is going to stay. History is giving us a way of making everything right. Let me help….."

"I hope not." she admitted cutting off the rest of his request.

Danny picked up the radio and tried it again, it was still dead.

Alice cut the engine and grabbed the second torch, "We'll walk for a bit, I'll see if I can pick up any tracks."

Danny looked at her, "You can track?"

She grinned, "Woman of many talents, plus Dupe made sure I knew what to look for when I trying to save the world one animal at a time. Apparently he wanted to make sure I didn't get mauled while I was too busy bunny hugging."

"Sounds like him." he agreed.

And they began to walk the moon shining above them, "DUPE!" she called scanning the area, "DU PLESSIS!" stepped over a large root.

Alice scanned the ground and shook her head knowing it would be foolish trying to go further in the darkness, she couldn't see anything but that didn't mean it wasn't there she just wasn't that good when it was light so dark she was worse! She decided to try the radio and see if they had arrived home yet. It didn't even crackle to life. She frowned at it. She changed the frequency and tried again. Still nothing.

"You know before when you tried to raise Dupe before did the radio crackle?"

Danny shook his head.

"Any sound? High pitched whine?"

"No, why is it supposed to?"

"I'm really gonna kill him!" she breathed. "There must be an issue with the radio or receiver because I can't even raise the house." she sighed. "I'd say Dupe is gonna have to check these but that will be hard after I shoot him. He knows to leave a note!"

Danny nodded remembering when she used to talk about him with that irritated affection in her voice. This was before they lost their son, before everything changed, before Derek ruined their life. And Derek was back…. He frowned eyes cloudy.

Alice saw it and began reassuring him, "I'd say take the long way round looking but I'll bet they are both at home right now and Dupe is anticipating me kicking his backside!" they turned back towards the truck. "It's not safe being out here in the dark anyway. If they aren't home I'll go out at first light. Evan will be fine after a night in the bush, he's with Dupe after all."

"I know," he assured.

"You were quiet. I thought…."

"Don't get me wrong, I am worried about Evan but I know he's safe here with Dupe. I guess my mind is on Derek. On everything we lost back then and…." he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I just see so much of you in Rosie and I hate seeing her so scared." ran his hand through his hair.

Alice could see the genuine care and concern he had for her sister and felt a jolt in her stomach, "It'll be ok, Derek being on the scene is unexpected I just need to ignore all the baiting until we get to court."

"What if it doesn't get that far?" he asked.

"Because it takes the fun out of it for them. Do you think they really want Rosie?" Alice laughed humourlessly. "She is just collateral damage for them. They want to hurt me, and no doubt Derek has recognised you so they will be twice as bad now."

"Let me help then! Let me be there for you." he told her heatedly.

"I said no ok!" then stomped in the direction of the truck.

When Alice saw he wasn't following she halted. "Danny I'm not playing this game with you." without turning around to look at him, "You either follow me back to the truck or I leave you here and pick you up in the morning!"

"Why can't you just let me help you?" he asked.

Alice shook her head as she stood enveloped in darkness, "I guess I'll see you in the morning then, do me a favour stay here. I have enough missing people to worry about." then began to head in the direction of the truck again. Why did he have to worry about her? Or get it in his head that she needed his help! He hadn't been in her life for so long, she had survived without him them and she could again now! Its not like this battle about Rosie affected him and Thomas, if anything….she halted the internal rant, not wanting to end the thought, it was that which made her resist his help! It was then she heard his footsteps behind her.

They walked to the truck in silence.

Rosie sat on a wall in Mara looking up at the night sky. Liv's dad had phoned, he had asked to speak to Evan initially and Leon had told him he was lost in the bush. Well after that all hell had broken loose, Liv was now trying to convince their dad that Evan was ok, not lost, or eaten or whatever, they just didn't know exactly where he was. Rosie however was sat in the dark hoping that it would somehow manage to swallow her whole. She couldn't believe that her dad beat Alice up. What sort of people did she come from? Her head bowed further as the memory of Alice on the floor burst into her mind. As much as Alice had tried to hide it she was in pain. Now she had to go in the bush on very short notice, in pain and she hadn't been sleeping well either. Rosie knew she was nothing but stress to Alice, it wasn't fair to her sister she just didn't know what to do or how to help. What if one day her dad went to far and killed Alice? She had confided that worry to Danny. He had assured her that it wouldn't happen, that Alice knew the type of man he was and who she was dealing with and would be putting things in place so they were all safe…..she could still tell he wasn't happy. There had an edge to his voice they no matter how hard he tried he couldn't hide. And that had scared her even more, Danny was scared for Alice too.

"Why are you sitting in the dark?" a young male voice asked.

"Coz I like the dark." she replied being facetious, looked up to see Max standing below a lamp.

"Do you fancy some company?"

To be honest she wasn't enjoying being alone, but didn't really want to speak to Max either, "Stay or go, I don't care."

Max kept a distance but hopped up on the wall beside her, "It's a nice night," he murmured, "Warm."

"Dupe keeps on saying we're heading for storm conditions." Rosie murmured. "He can feel it in his bones."

Max made a face, "Who knows, maybe he's..."

"Dupe is rarely right about these things." Rosie interrupted. "That's what Alice said." she finished with a shrug.

"Well rarely implies that at least once he's been right."

"Well, she said because of the law of averages he had to be right eventually." Rosie smiled at him. "Emphasis on eventually."

"I see." he murmured liking her smile. "Where's Liv?"

"On the phone to her dad." Rosie snorted at the word father, so did Max.

"I take it you don't get along with your dad since you are living with Alice." he asked.

"Yours isn't much better obviously!" she retorted and crossed her arms.

"My dad is the worst." he admitted. "He palmed me off on mum because I was too much trouble now because she has gave me back I'll be shipped off to boarding school." he couldn't without his sigh.

She raised her eyebrows in question.

"I'm too much hard work. The only reason I am still here now is Danny. He convinced dad to keep me around, try to bond with me, but he'll change his mind soon enough."

"I like Danny." she told him softly. "Alice is stupid for divorcing him." then she remembered how her dad treated her older sister, "You say your dad is bad, at least he doesn't beat up your older sister because she doesn't like him in certain way!" her tone full of venom.

Max was horrified, "His own daughter?"

Rosie shook her head, "He isn't her dad. We have the same mum. All he's done to Alice and it is all because of me, if it was only mum Alice would have left them to it a long time ago."

Max cocked his head, "Ok, yours is worse."

"My mum and dad are trying to get custody of me, another court case for Alice to stress about. She's still trying to help Thomas settle, what if they find out Alice has him back? I'm worried in case they use him to try to get to her. My dad has seen Danny and Thomas in a truck earlier on today. it'll kill her if she loses him again. I'm starting to think it might be better if I wasn't here anymore." she admitted.

He withheld a gasp, "You mean..."

"Running away, nothing stupid. But where would I go? What would I do?" rubbed her face stressed out.

"I have to admit I ave considered running away too, I sort of have a solution for the money problem but hacking into bank accounts is harder than light switches. Plus I would be found no problem if I done that, they have specialists for that and I don't fancy a fraud charge."

"We make quite the pair don't we." Rosie murmured. "My parents want me too much and yours not at all. Mind mine don't want me for any other reason other than just to hurt Alice." and she sighed.

"I am sorry about what I said." he told her honestly. "I really want trying to insult Alice by calling her easy or anything. Danny is a nice guy and he married her so they had something."

"I think they still do you have something you know, sometimes they'll look at each other and its like they see something else. They just get this expression like they would walk through fire for the other." she smiled softly in the darkness. "And it's like they don't even see it! I hope I find someone who looks at me like that one day." and she glanced up at him and saw a funny expression upon his face. Her mouth went dry and she cleared her throat.

"You know that day I came over to speak to you." he started.

She nodded, mouth still dry, his eyes were a lovely shade, why had she never noticed that before?

He took a deep breath, ""I only came over to talk to you because I liked you."

Rosie looked at him and could only see half of his face in the moonlight, "You liked me?" she almost croaked. "Like how? Like me, like me?"

He shrugged, "I just saw you one day with Thomas and Liv and thought wow, so pretty! So far out of my league."

Rosie blushed, "Oh."

"And, um, yeah." he swallowed. "So, um, now that I have told you that would you like to go out with me? As my girlfriend." he clarified.

As she looked at him in the moonlight his eyes seemed bluer, his smile made butterflies take flight in her stomach. "If I said yes, BIG if, what if my mum gets custody of me and takes me away? Or what if your dad sends you to boarding school?"

Max was quiet considering their options, "If that happens we run away." he told her seriously.

"Don't be daft." she replied.

"I'm not! If they decide what they think is best for us and we don't agree we go. I told you I have already thought about this Rosie, we won't be going off half cocked, plus if I have you there I know we could make this work."

Rosie stared at him frowning.

"Just ignore what I just said." he told her softly feeling foolish. He was a right idiot.

Rosie simply nodded, "It's a nice thought but not really practical." then she grinned, "And about your first question…."

Liv chose that moment to walk around the corner, "Rosie?" she called, "Are you here?"

Rosie pulled Max back into the shadows and kissed him on the lips quickly, smiled, then hopped down from he wall, "I'll call you later. We'll talk." then headed towards Liv.

Max grinned to himself in the darkness.

A/N well Max and Rosie seem to be getting along well, but how will this running away plan go? especially with future developments in the story. The Danice are suffering some. they need a heart to heart but alice is being stubborn! Gah. we need some danice love but i am currently unable to write it man. i am trying though!