RECAP - danice had a child together long ago, after some bad stuff went down they lost him and split up, 15 years later the boys adopted parents died and alice got custody, danny found out and wasn't happy and moved to S/A with his partners kids who died (Sarah) where they argued but when thomas almost got hurt they decided to put aside their differences and work together for their son. alice also cared for her kid sister who's dad is currently tormenting alice.

Danice went to a party and alice had her drink spiked by Rosies dad who tried to abduct her because he has a grudge against alice, he was apprehended at mara but managed to escape. whilst under the influence alice kissed danny and ended up in hospital unable to remember what happened. thomas is starting to see Alice as a mum. when alice is home from hospital danny turned up at her house and kissed her and they went to alices bedroom...

Alice came awake with a start and became aware of the light droning of the radio she had been listening to when she sorted the laundry, she opened her eyes and peered around, the room was dark, the curtains moving softly from the wind blowing from the open window. She looked up at the ceiling shaking her head in disbelief, she really couldn't believe that she had been this stupid! Turning her head slightly she saw the outline of a mound, informing her that Danny was sleeping beside her, soundly. Well lucky him! She put her hands on her face again unable to believe what she had done! This had been a colossal mistake, what was she doing? Her feelings for him were already in a precarious position and what does she do? She sleeps with him! Not to mention Rosie and Thomas, she resisted the urge to thump her head off the pillow. The last thing she wanted to do was wake him and have the inevitable awkward conversation. She was genuinely considering getting the hell out of here and going to sleep in the surgery…. or never sleeping again!

Memories of how it had been between them flashed through her mind, it hadn't been how it used to be, well it had been familiar but in a wonderful way, kind of like coming home. There had been a passion now though she hadn't felt as a teenager, he had been her first, her only, she had been far more confident this time around, more images flashed in her mind warming her face, the way she had returned his heated kisses, the way he responded in kind, the way he had touched her, the way he'd looked at her, falling asleep wrapped up in each other. It had felt so right….

"I can feel you thinking." He murmured from beside her, voice rough with sleep. "You having regrets?"

"Aren't you?" she asked without even looking at him.

She heard him sigh, "No." he told her simply. "I have never regretted a single moment with you," Alice felt himself prop himself up on one arm, but still couldn't bring herself to look at him.

"I didn't mean back then."

"I meant then and now." he told her not missing a beat.

"Danny…" she began inwardly cursing him, why couldn't he make this easy for her?

"Alice," he cut her off with a murmur, "Look at me."

She lowered the hands which had been covering her face and turned to face him. He was leaning up on one arm, shirtless, looking at her. His days growth darker than before, no expression at all on his face. Just looking at her….and her mind went blank. All the reasons she was going to say that what happened was wrong just disappeared and it was just him and her.

"Do you want me to go?" he asked her gently.

"The kids…." she began weakly, needing a reason to get him out of here that he wouldn't argue with. It didn't help that she wanted him here, that for the first time in so long she had this feeling of contentment.

"Don't do that!" he told her. "What do YOU want? It's only us in here, no one else."

"We don't have that luxury!" she retorted sitting up, what she wanted didn't matter. Making sure the kids were settled was her priority!

He sat up too, "This is SO you, do you know that? If this is such a big mistake then tell me! We're adults, we can deal with it but don't be using the kids as an excuse because you are scared!" his eyes flaming.

"Scared of what!" bristling at how Danny seemed to be able to read her.

"Scared that we'll fall for each other again? Or scared that maybe it has already happened!"

She looked at him then and saw her son in his face, saw how uncertain he was about putting himself out there and knew that the same uncertainly was mirrored on her face too.

Silence stretched between them, until Danny broke it, "Do you remember what song was playing when I came in the house?"

Alice shook her head, she was too busy trying to stop myself from looking at him too closely, it was the looking at him that got her in this mess

"It's a newish one, I can honestly say that I would never have kissed you if it hadn't been playing, it's one I have heard playing in Mara a lot recently and whenever I hear I always think of you. Without fail."

Alice was interested now looking at him openly.

"It's called hands talk and the main part that I think of you is 'Why don't we turn off the phones, get somewhere alone, I'll trace that smile on your face, 'til the stars fade away, baby cut off the light let our hands talk tonight. There's things to be said, we can't say in a text, got good love to be made take as long as it takes, one touch at a time let our hands talk tonight'. I knew as soon as I got here and that was playing that something was going to happen tonight and I know that you might regret it but I really don't!"

Alice sat and listened feeling tingling from her head to her toes, sod off just sod bloody off!

"When I heard that here I felt like it was a sign to at least try and I know you told me not to apologise for this but I am sorry if this ruins whatever was growing between us, because there was something, you have to give me that much! If it really is that much of a mistake though just tell me, I'll go into my room and we won't mention it again. We can blame it on hormones, or the sun or tiredness but you need to tell me!"

Alice couldn't bring herself to reply.

"Or, we can keep this between us, take it slow, get to know each other again. That way Rosie isn't getting her hopes up and Thomas has time to get used to me being around."

"A relationship?" she whispered, a question and statement simultaneously. Almost like the idea hadn't occurred to her.

"It isn't like we haven't had one before." he told her.

"But we were kids then." She murmured absently, the idea appealing to her more than she was willing to admit.

"What do you want Alice?"

"I don't know." She told him gently. "It's not that I don't…." she struggled to find a way to describe it, when she couldn't find one without admitting something she wasn't ready to even admit to herself she moved on and left the statement at that, "…all we do is hurt each other Danny, you can't deny that."

"Not true." He replied quickly. "I remember the times we made each other so happy, I remember when we both used to laugh so much we couldn't breathe! I remember the first time we kissed in the rain and you scrunched you face up and giggled, holdings hands watching fireworks. Watching you bring our son into the world…."

"And I remember watching your heart break when we lost him! I remember our relationship falling apart, I remember seeing parts of each other we didn't even know existed!"

"You keep going back to that!" he told her trying to stop his voice from getting too heated.

"Because I can't forget it! All those years we lost, all those times as a family!"

"And you think I can? You think the thought of losing you and the kids again doesn't scare the hell out of me? I stop those thoughts by telling myself how good we were and how we could be better now! Like you tell Rosie about our experiences, we know how precious this is now. You're fighting it, Thomas is here with us now, we could have a second chance, finally be the family the 4 of us missed out on being."

And that was all that she had ever wanted, the four of them, him and her, Rosie and their son. But when she didn't voice that, or even make a sound he shook his head.

"I'd better be going." He wasn't going to sit here all night vainly trying to convince her. She had to want it too. He rose from the bed and after finding his jeans began to pull them on over his boxers.

"What? I thought…." Wait a minute what did she think?

Danny looked at her giving her a sad smile, then sat opposite her on the bed, moving a few errant strands of hair behind her ear tenderly, how he felt about her written all over his face, "If I thought it'd make a difference I'd sit here and argue with you until the sun came up, longer, but when you get an idea in your head nothing I do or say with change it. You have to want it too." And with that he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. He retrieved his t shirt and pulled it over his head.

Alice simply sat there, heart pounding although she didn't know why, why was she scared? Was she scared that she was losing what they could have? But they couldn't have anything anyway so why was she scared? She was so bloody confused! "Danny…. don't…. we can't…."

"Don't what?" He challenged, "We can't what?"

"What do you want from me?" her voice raising higher than she liked. Hating he was pushing her to say things, yet another small part of her wanting him to carry on, knowing what he was saying is true.

"The truth!" he retorted and crossed his arms and looked at her.

Alice clenched her jaw, heart feeling like it was about to burst from her chest.

"No?" he shrugged, "It's been nice." And he headed for the door.

"Wait…" she told him.

He ignored her and had reached the door, his hand wrapped around the handle when she scrambled across the bed, went to him and pushed it closed before he could leave. "I said wait! You want the truth? Fine! The truth is I don't know how I feel but I think I bloody love you, you bloody idiot and it scares me to death!" her chest heaving.

Danny turned to look at her smiling, "See, not so hard, is it?" and pressed another kiss to her forehead. "And believe it or not I understand how you feel, I'm scared about the future but we'll take it slow and when it feels right we'll move on. Ok?"

He then went to open the door again after she nodded and took his hand.

"You still leaving?"

"Oh, I wasn't leaving." He told her and grinned. "I was going to the bathroom."

She hit his chest, laughter bubbling. He silenced her with a kiss.

The following days had been idyllic, they spent time with all the kids and each other. So far Alice's favourite had been when they'd took a walk along the river that ran through Leopards Den. She and Danny had taken the kids exploring and she had showed them Elizabeth's point. They were supposed to be crossing the old bridge but she had noticed it was starting to get into serious disrepair. She had radioed and told Dupe about the bridge and asked him to come and have a look when he had the chance after telling the kids not to go near it.

The kids had begged off when they ran into Evan tracking but Danny and Alice had stayed and strolled along the water's edge hand in hand, Danny had stopped, leaned down and kissed her and told her he loved her for the first time, she replied that she loved him too. It had been totally natural, replying before her brain could kick in. He just took her by the hand and continued walking.

As far as they were aware the kids had no idea they were a couple yet, they were using the Derek situation for the reason that Danny was staying, to be honest Alice was really enjoying having him around again, she was worried she was going to get used to it and he'd have to go again as the Derek thing wasn't going to last forever. Maybe it was better if he did go home, they already had one or two close shaves, the most notable was by Rosie. Danny had found it hilarious! Alice had just been about to go in the shower when he slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He'd smiled at her and before she knew it they were kissing, he'd offered to scrub her back and unable to say no she'd agreed, soon more than just the water was heating up! They were so wrapped up in each other she almost fell over in the shower when a loud knock startled them. Alice froze looking towards the door with soap running into her eyes.

Rosie's voice floated towards them, "C'mon what you doing in there?" she shouted.

Alice was shaking her head trying to clear her vision, struggling with water flowing over her head.

"Rosie?" Alice replied, swatting at Danny when he began kissing her neck.

"Alice?" Rosie shouted. "What you doing? I could of swore I saw Danny come in here before."

"Erm… no… just me…" a shriek and laugh was pulled from her when Danny started tickling her whilst whispering what he wanted to do to her in her ear.

"Alice? What's wrong with you, you're acting weird." Rosie told her through the door.

"I just swallowed some water in the shower." And coughed theatrically whilst mock glaring at Danny. He smiled smuggled and wiggled his eyes brows.

"Well how long you gonna be? I'm supposed to be meeting Liv in an hour before her dad gets here."

"Yeah, how long will we be?" Danny whispered on her ear putting some soap in his hands, lathering it up then rubbing it up and down her arms slowly, eyes flaring with heat.

Alice felt hot and cold at the same time at the intensity of his gaze and wasn't sure she was able to answer Rosie's question with a normal voice, "Not long." She squeaked.

Rosie huffed and left, she and Danny hadn't really spoke after either, well not until they were both out of the shower and getting dressed. She requested that Danny climb out of the window.

"Excuse me?" his eyebrows raised.

"Go on, climb out of the window." She urged, moving him in that direction.

"What is wrong with using the traditional method?" he teased, rubbing his hair with a towel.

"You mean apart from Rosie thinking it's me in here? I... WE need to set an example."

"Or at least look like it." He told her with a devilish grin.

"Please Danny, for me?" she asked him pleading.

Danny saw her expression and relented, picked up another towel and rubbed his hair again vigorously getting the last droplets, "You owe me big time lady."

She reached up to kiss his cheek and he corrected her by giving her a long slow kiss on the lips, then smiled down at her lovingly. Alice moved to the window, opened it and looked outside, as soon as the coast was clear he climbed out…. Only to met by Dupe just as the window closed.

"Danny?" he declared then took in the sight of Danny, bare feet, still slightly wet, "Why are you wet?"

Danny's eyes widened when he saw the old man, "Errr…. Ummm…. I went for a swim." He told him nodding.

Dupe frowned at him, "Really? You'd better go get yourself a tetanus the filter on the pool is broken again and the water is going green, I've been meaning to drain it recently."

"Oh…. well…. see…. I went for one then fell in."

"Where's your towel?"

Danny began to squirm, "I must have left it down there, I better go get it."

Dupe narrowed his eyes and finally noticed the frosted glass of the window behind Danny.

"Be careful." Dupe warned giving him a knowing look.

Danny, who had begun to depart looked back.

"If she falls." Dupe added. "And gets hurt."

"I'd never do that." Danny replied softly.

"Intentionally," Dupe replied.

"Or otherwise." Danny retorted. "Look whatever this is, it means something to me. She does."

Dupe sighed knowing that nothing he said or did was going to stop whatever those two were doing, they were bloody worse than the kids! "I'm watching." And with that Dupe departed.

Danny shook his head and decided to go to his room.

It was just getting harder to keep this hidden, the more time Alice spent with Danny the more time she wanted to be with him, and it should be scary and it kind of was but at the same time it was really nice to have someone to share things with, to talk to at night! That, of course wasn't only one thing on her mind as she was sat looking out of the window in the kitchen, Derek keep on filtering through! And what his next move was going to be. Yes, they were using that as reason why Danny was staying and him being here did make it easier to keep an eye on the kids but having no word on what he was up to had her on edge! They hadn't told the kids he had disappeared and the police were taking their time finding him, they weren't even looking since they were sure that he had hired a plane out of the country. The whole of the last two weeks had been quiet and to be honest Derek just wasn't that patient! She would have expected something to happen within a day or two, three tops! She was hoping that Derek was a thing of the past and their future? She smiled, well who knew but she knew she was enjoying what they had now.

A few days later Danny and Alice were enjoying a rare day off together. Danny had been looking forward to this since they planned it, they had spent a lot of time talking at nights when the kids were in bed, laughing, getting to know each other again and to be honest he was loving it all, so much so he was dreading going home. They had talked last night about that and they had decided that after having a discussion with the kids they were going to talk to Dupe and Caroline about him and the kids moving in here full time. He would still be working at Mara but he would be here for the rest of the time. It was just so easy to be around Alice, he smiled as he remembered how she had been bent double laughing at him last night, her blue eyes bright as tears had streamed from her eyes. The image was frozen in his brain! At the moment, she was down in the surgery dispensing medication then she was all his. The kids were out, Dupe had taken them all, Evan was training Liv, Rosie and Thomas basic tracking skills. Dupe just wanted to know how much Evan remembered, or so he said, Danny had a feeling the old man was giving the two of them the chance for some time alone and he was grateful to him. He walked down the hallway and saw her heading towards the house, her stride long, hips loose, the sight of her took his breath away. He was in so far above his head here but he didn't know how to stop it, he didn't even want to.

He noticed the ellies began approaching as he exited the house, he checked his watch, bang on time! They were always here at this time when they knew it was time for a feed. The ellies reached Alice before she was at the house and they were already prodding her pockets with their trunks.

"I don't have any oranges." Alice told them laughing. "Danny help, I'm being accosted here."

He shrugged and leant against the veranda barrier, "I can't help it if they love you."

She gave him a mock glare swatting at the ellies.

Danny grinned at her then dashed into the house. He retrieved an orange from the fruit bowl and after slicing it up he returned to see Alice up to her elbows in elephant trunks. It was like as soon as she moved her arm they pre-empted her. They were determined this morning! He jogged down the stairs and lured them away with the promise of more oranges, "I'll keep them busy while you get their feed."

Alice sauntered away as the ellies began following Danny, "Yeah maybe in an hour or two, since they are busy with you I am free to have a nice long bubble bath." She turned to look at him with laughter in her eyes.

"Hey!" he retorted just as the ellies began picking up speed towards him.

The ellies finally reached their target and he was trying to make his oranges last as long as possible when he began to wonder whether Alice was actually going to return when Alice appeared carrying a bucket. The ellies seeing they had exhausted all the food from him quickly moved back towards Alice who was stood at the bottom of the stairs shaking the bucket, before she could even place it on the ground the ellies had their trunks inside it rooting for food. Alice smiled and rubbed their trunks affectionately, then leaving them to their feed she approached Danny who was rubbing his hands on his trousers.

"Thanks for saving me." She told him with a mock glare

Danny shrugged, "Anytime." And he leaned over and kissed her gently.

"It's our first time alone in over a week." She murmured draping her hands over his shoulders, the ellies a distant memory already. "What to do?"

"I can think of one or two things." He replied, kissing her again, just as gentle as before but only longer this time. "Why don't you save your bucket, I'll wash my hands and we can go from there.

Alice turned to the forgotten ellies and saw since the food was all exhausted they were pushing the bucket around the floor with their feet like a football.

"Later." She told him and reached up for another kiss when the phone began to ring insistently from inside.

After letting it ring off it rang again and she sighed. "Do you mind grabbing the phone while I grab the bucket, I'd let you grab the bucket but it can take a while to get it from them, they think it's a game. I'll show you the trick one day."

"No problem." And he headed for the house.

"And if its Vanessa tell her it's my day off." She called after him.

He waved as he walked inside and after watching him disappear, she began to skirt the ellies to retrieve her bucket.

Danny however jogged inside to catch the phone, "Hello Leopards Den." He said grabbing a pen and paper intent on taking a quick message. "Alice isn't here right now but I can take a message and she can call you back." The caller told him his name and Danny jotted down the details including phone number, then the caller mentioned his sons name.

"Oh, is this about Thomas Trevanion? I'm his father Daniel Trevanion so I can pass on the message,"

The caller informed him that he was just going to check his details and that he was who he claimed to be, after a few moments the caller had verified the details and began to talk, they had only been speaking a minute when Danny eyes widened and he paled and his head began to shack back and forth, no this couldn't be right! Without saying a word to the caller he placed the phone down on the table turned around and walked out of the house, leaving by the back door.

Just as he'd exited Alice walked in the front door dusting off her clothes, "Bloody ellies knocked me right on my backside!" she laughed.

"Don't play football with ellies or…." Then she saw the telephone on the table. "Danny?" she asked looking into the rooms as she passed. He must have put it there when he went to find a pad to write on….it was then she saw the pad on the table and heard the strains of a voice over the phone. She picked it up

"Hello?" she asked and looked at the name on the pad, it held the name of the lead investigator in the crash Thomas had been involved in. The person on the other end was saying they were about to put the phone down, "Hi sorry, it's Alice here, the person who picked up the phone seems to have been called away unexpectedly, do you mind telling me what you told him?"

As the caller outlined what Danny had been told Alice put her hand over her mouth, knowing why Danny had disappeared. When he finished speaking Alice thanked him for the call before placing the phone back in the cradle. She sat on the chair beside the table and put her bowed head in her hands, "Oh God." She whispered. This was bad! Really bad! And the worst part was she had to find a way to tell Thomas.

A/N Hi there, long time since an update, I am seriously busy pretty much all the time now I haven't written anything in god knows how long, but I have some time off work so I really want to get this finished at least the written part. I also have a oneshot type thing planned, based on s4 around episode 5. Kind of missing scene, kind of au but will tie in nicely.

ANYHOO, what on earth has Danny heard on the phone? and how will it affect his budding relationship with Alice and how is Thomas involved? What does Alice have to tell him? I will try to get the next chapter out soon. Oh and for all the Rax lovers there might be Rax in the next chapter, if not then definately the one after so stay tuned!