30

At the same time in Melbourne Claire and Alex were getting ready for their lunch with Edna.

Claire had been surprised by Alex in the morning. He had fixed her breakfast with what little he had in his fridge and had served it in bed. Ok, toast and bacon were a little burnt but it was the thought that counted and after removing the black parts it was definitely eatable.

"You can do that every morning when we're home…" Claire had said, but only got a funny look from Alex.

After the wonderful breakfast in bed Claire had gone to take a shower and get dressed. Since she still didn't have many clothes with her she decided to wear the dress again she had worn yesterday. 'I think I need to do some more shopping tomorrow if I need to stay here for a week…' she thought and laughed. She hadn't done that much shopping in a long, long time.

Soon they were on the way to Edna's nice little house on the outskirts of Melbourne. Claire was really looking forward to seeing the elderly lady again. She had had so much fun the other day and the food had been phenomenal!

Claire was amazed how easily Alex found the way through the city. You could really tell he had spent the last months here and was comfortable driving with all that traffic. When they arrived at Edna's house Claire could already see her waiting at the front door.

"Claire!" she shouted and waved. Claire smiled, they would have a really nice lunch and afternoon. Alex would love to old lady.

Edna hugged Claire and then turned to Alex. "So you're the mysterious man this young lady drove all the way down for." She said and shook his hand. "I'm Edna!"

"Nice to meet you Edna, I'm Alex, Alex Ryan. And thanks for taking care of Claire the other day!"

"Oh, my pleasure. We did have a nice afternoon, didn't we dear?" She put her arm around Clair and led her into the house. "Yes we did…Edna, that IS a nice smell in here!"

They sat down and had lunch while Edna was questioning Alex about what he did in the city and if he decided to go back with Claire now. Alex laughed about every question, he could see that Edna was really worried about Claire and couldn't believe they had only met once before. This felt more like a visit with Claire's grandmother! But he liked it. He liked it a lot…

Claire on the other hand was glad now that she had told Edna the whole story except for the marriage part. The way she talked about everything Claire had told her she was sure Edna would have let something slip out. And Claire was still waiting for the right moment to break the news to Alex.

When Claire and Alex finally got back to Alex's apartment it was already quite late and Claire was exhausted. They had had a fun day but being so close to giving birth everything seemed to be more tiring than usual. While Alex put the supplies Edna had given them into the fridge Claire went straight to the bedroom. When Alex found her a couple minutes later she was fast asleep, still wearing her shoes. Alex smiled and took the shoes off and covered Claire with the sheets. It didn't take him long to join Claire in bed. He could really get used to having her in his arms…

31

Claire hadn't called the whole day and Tess was nearly out of her mind now. Nick had spent most of the day with her and Tess had been glad about that. Her mind wasn't on any of her chores today, all she could think about was 'Where's Claire?'

When it was dinner time Tess wasn't able to eat anything although Meg tried to convince her that it didn't help to find Claire if Tess was starving. But Tess wasn't hungry. Finally after dinner she asked Nick to come to the study with him. When they got there she asked "Can we book a flight now?" right away.

"Sure, I promised we would do this and she hasn't called yet so yes, we will book a flight and a hotel."

They were lucky to get a flight to Melbourne for the noon the next day but that meant leaving Drovers early in the morning. Tess calmed down a little. At least she had done something now even if she still didn't know where Claire was.

"I'll pick you up at 7 tomorrow, all right?" Nick said before he left Tess to go back to Wilgul to pack up some things.

Tess actually managed to get a few hours of sleep that night but it wasn't very much. She felt knackered the next day and just hoped they would find Claire today so she could finally get a proper dose of sleep.

Nobody had been surprised the night before when Tess had told them she was flying down to Melbourne to find Claire. There was not all that much to do on Drovers for the rest of the week so Meg, Jodi and Becky would be able to manage on their own and after a phone call from Nick Harry had agreed to send Terry over to help as well. And with the wheat all harvested there wasn't anything really left to do on Wilgul.

Nick arrived on Drovers on time to pick up Tess and they got on the way to Adelaide to catch the flight to Melbourne. Tess, unlike her usual self, was extremely quiet the whole time and Nick knew she was worried sick for Claire. It wasn't like Claire either not to call for 2, almost 3 days and he started to get worried, too. Maybe it was the best they got down there anyway. Claire had been driving all the way and she only had 3 weeks till the due day now so he doubted she would still be able to drive home alone. Even if she hadn't found Alex she wouldn't be alone now because there was no way Tess would ever leave her side again once they had found her.

The flight into Melbourne went smoothly and when they got there they took a taxi to their hotel, the same Claire had stayed in. They had booked 2 rooms there and wanted to start the search for Claire from there. Once they had checked in they tried to phone the pony club again but still couldn't get anybody to answer the phone. And since the pony club was on the other end of town it would take them way too long to get there on time today. So they decided to have a nice dinner together at the hotel restaurant and go to the pony club first thing in the morning.

After dinner Nick escorted Tess back to her room. Before she opened the door Tess turned around and looked in Nick's eyes.
"Do you think she's all right?" she asked him and wanted him to say yes. But Nick wasn't too sure about that himself so he only said "I don't know Tess but I sure hope so…" and took her in his arms and held her tight.

They stood in front of Tess's room for a couple minutes just holding each other till Tess finally said "I need to get to my bed, we have an early start tomorrow…" So Nick let her go and went to his own room to get some sleep and smiled because he knew he'd be dreaming about Tess that night…

32

Claire woke up to Alex's alarm clock. It was Monday and he had to go back to work. She had woken up in the middle of the night to find she was still wearing her dress. So she had changed to her nightgown and had gotten back to bed…in Alex's arms. Claire smiled at the thought. She could get used to waking up next to him…

"Damn thing…"Alex mumbled and kissed Claire's hair. "You stay right where you are, no need for you to be up yet. You wanna have breakfast in bed again?" He asked as he got up with a sigh.

"Nah, thanks, don't feel like eating just yet. I will find something to eat later…"

"Righto, I think I should get myself ready for work I guess…I feel bad for leaving you alone all day, Claire."

"That's ok, I will manage…"

"This is the city Claire! You haven't been here since you had your hair in pigtails!"

"I found you, didn't I? And ALONE as I want to add…and besides, since I'll be staying here longer than I thought I need a few more clothes. And While I'm out shopping anyway I might as well look for a few things for the baby, don't really have all that much so far!"

Alex laughed "Claire McLeod shopping for baby stuff! That's something I'd really like to see!"

"Too bad you gotta go to work…" Claire said with a wink. She not only planned to go shopping for clothes and baby things, she also wanted a birthday present for Alex. It was his 30th birthday that Thursday and she wanted to give him something special. But so far she had no idea what that special something could be.

When Alex was ready to leave for work Claire was still in bed. This was so unlike her but there wasn't anything she could do here and as soon as she'd get up her feet would start swelling again. Shopping today would really be a torture…

Alex walked over to her and sat down on the bed. "You know, I'm really glad you found me. Usually I don't really wanna go home after work but now I got somebody waiting here for me…" He looked in Claire's eyes and was once again amazed about the intensity of her look. "I'm glad I found you, too…" Claire saw Alex's face move closer to her and closed her eyes as she felt his lips touch hers gently. Once their lips locked they both lost track of time as they deepened the kiss. It was Alex who finally broke away mumbling "Gosh, I really hate to go to work today…"

Before walking out the door he took one last look at Claire and sighed. She smiled.

"Hurry up when you're finished, I'll be waiting here for you…"

Then Alex left her alone with her feelings all roiled up inside her. So Claire got up to start her day as well. Taking another look in the fridge she thought 'Damn! I'll have to go grocery shopping, too! I'll be dead tonight…"

Once she was showered and dressed in her last set of relatively clean clothes she suddenly remembered she hadn't spoken to Tess since Saturday morning. So she dialled the Drovers number real quick but nobody picked up. They were probably out somewhere working, she'd have to try again round lunch time. Then she could probably get a hold of somebody and tell them she was fine and had found Alex.

A few hours later Claire was exhausted. She had already done all the shopping for herself and for the baby and all the walking around had caused her feet to swell up. She still didn't have a single idea what to buy Alex for his birthday. The only thing she knew was she wanted it to be special. But since she didn't even have a clue what that could be she decided to have something to eat somewhere and then she would get back to Alex's apartment to put her feet up. They were killing her. This was worse than walking around on Drovers all day!

Claire found a nice little restaurant and was glad she could at least sit down. She ordered and then felt the baby kick her. "Easy sweetheart!" she said and rubbed her tummy. And that's when the idea suddenly hit her. She knew what she's get for Alex. Claire smiled. She was sure he would like this…

Lost in her thoughts about the perfect birthday present for Alex Claire hadn't seen the woman walk up to her and almost fell off her chair when she heard a voice address her.
"Claire? You're here! Did you find him?" Claire looked up in surprise. "Liz…"

33

Alex couldn't concentrate on work today. His thoughts seemed to constantly drift to Claire and their goodbye kiss this morning. And that brought the biggest smile to his face. He finally had her back and would go home soon. Then he realized that he still had to talk to his boss about taking time off to be with Claire when the baby was born. He shivered. He didn't know anything about babies, not a single thing.

'I need to buy a book on my way home…' he thought and there was that smile again as he thought about the baby.

Alex got up with a sigh. He couldn't put the talk to Karen off forever so he might as well do it now. He had thought about what to say on his way to work today and really hoped Karen would understand why he had to go so suddenly.

He knocked on Karen's office door and entered on her "Come in…"

"Karen, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure Alex, have a seat."

Alex liked the informality in the company. Everybody was using the first name and it felt more like a huge family than a work environment. Searching for the words he had so carefully worked out Alex sat down.

"Karen. I know this may come as a surprise for you…but I need some time off…next week…"

Karen smiled "Finally! I thought you'd never miss a day of work! So where are ya going to? Anywhere fancy?" Alex was a little surprised. This wasn't exactly the reaction he had expected.

"Not really…it's a little more complicated than that. Actually I need more than just a week off…"

"All right, spill the beans! What's up? Are you sick or anything? You don't look like it…"

"It's a long story and I don't really want to go into any details but the fact is…there's been some changes in my life that just came up over the weekend and I need to go home for a while."

Everybody in the company knew that Alex had come to the city from being a farmer but nobody knew the reason why. Even though he had become friends with most of his direct colleagues and they went out together regularly it had been too painful to tell the story of his messed up life.

"So, how long will you be gone?" It dawned on Karen that she was about to lose one of her workers.

"For however long you can give me off…"

"And will you come back after that?"

"I don't know Karen, I'm sorry. I want to be honest with you, if things turn out the way I want them to the chances for me returning are very little…" Alex felt sorry for Karen. He could clearly see she didn't like what she was hearing.

"Does this have to do with the fact you've been running around all day with a stupid smile glued to your face?" Karen now turned the conversation more into the direction of two friends talking than boss and employee.

Alex laughed. It must have been pretty obvious he had had a great weekend.

"Yes, "he said "this is the reason why I want to leave…"

"So it's about a woman I would guess…"

"Yes, actually about 2 people…one of them not even born yet…" The smile on Alex's face got even broader.

"What?" Karen looked confused so Alex just told her about Claire and the baby. Only the very necessary details but at least Karen would then understand why he had to go. When he was finished Karen said "Can we at least have a goodbye party for you?" but Alex had a better suggestion.

"Why don't we make it a goodbye party combined with a birthday party? It's my birthday on Thursday…"

They agreed to have the party here at the firm and Karen would take care of the arrangement.